• For German
    research organisations
  • Research landscape
  • News and research areas
  • Your goal
  • Our service
Why Germany
  • R&D policy framework
  • Research infrastructure
  • Research funding system
Universities
  • Universities of applied sciences
Research institutes
  • Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
  • Helmholtz Association
  • Leibniz Association
  • Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
  • Academies of sciences and humanities
  • Federal institutions
  • Länder institutions
  • Research infrastructure
  • Industrial research
Industrial research
Top universities
Research News
Global Health
Bioeconomy
InnoHealth
EnergInno
Future of Work
COVID-19 in Germany
Cancer Research
Bachelor or master
PhD
  • Good reasons
  • Two ways to get your PhD
  • Find your PhD position
  • How to apply for a PhD
  • Funding programmes
  • Funding organisations
  • Funding databases
  • Job portals
Postdoc
  • Good reasons
  • Career options & dual careers
  • Funding programmes
  • Funding organisations
  • Funding databases
  • Job portals
Advanced research
  • Good reasons
  • Career options & dual careers
  • Funding & awards
  • Funding organisations
  • Funding databases
  • Job portals
Research Position
  • Find a job
  • Potential employers
  • Research fields
Events & online talks
  • Events
  • Online talks
  • Innovation Week
Research news
Newsletter
  • Subscribe
  • Newsletter 2022
  • Newsletter 2021
Our publications
Success stories
Link to German Institutions research organisations
  • Research landscape
    • Overview Research landscape
    • Why Germany
      • Overview Why Germany
      • R&D policy framework
      • Research infrastructure
        • Overview Research infrastructure
        • DESY – Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron
        • DKRZ – German Climate Computing Centre
        • Research vessel Polarstern
        • FLASH – free-electron laser in Hamburg
      • Research funding system
        • Overview Research funding system
        • Government funding
        • How does government funding work?
    • Universities
      • Overview Universities
      • Universities of applied sciences
    • Research institutes
      • Overview Research institutes
      • Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
      • Helmholtz Association
      • Leibniz Association
      • Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
      • Academies of sciences and humanities
      • Federal institutions
      • Länder institutions
      • Research infrastructure
      • Industrial research
    • Industrial research
    • Top universities
  • News and research areas
    • Overview News and research areas
    • Research News
    • Global Health
    • Bioeconomy
    • InnoHealth
    • EnergInno
    • Future of Work
    • COVID-19 in Germany
    • Cancer Research
  • Your goal
    • Overview Your goal
    • Bachelor or master
    • PhD
      • Overview PhD
      • Good reasons
      • Two ways to get your PhD
      • Find your PhD position
      • How to apply for a PhD
      • Funding programmes
      • Funding organisations
      • Funding databases
      • Job portals
    • Postdoc
      • Overview Postdoc
      • Good reasons
      • Career options & dual careers
        • Overview Career options & dual careers
        • Professorship
        • Postdoc positions
        • Junior research group leader
        • Researcher in industry
        • Research stays and visits
        • International collaborations
        • Dual careers
      • Funding programmes
      • Funding organisations
      • Funding databases
      • Job portals
    • Advanced research
      • Overview Advanced research
      • Good reasons
      • Career options & dual careers
        • Overview Career options & dual careers
        • Professorship
        • Visiting professorship & visiting lectureship
        • Leading a research group
        • Researcher in a company
        • Research stays and visits
        • International collaborations
        • Dual careers
      • Funding & awards
      • Funding organisations
      • Funding databases
      • Job portals
    • Research Position
      • Overview Research Position
      • Find a job
      • Potential employers
      • Research fields
        • Overview Research fields
        • Agriculture
        • Architecture
        • Earth Sciences
        • Engineering
        • Forestry
        • Law
        • Logistics
        • Pharmacy
  • Our service
    • Overview Our service
    • Events & online talks
      • Overview Events & online talks
      • Events
      • Online talks
        • Overview Online talks
        • Planning your research career in germany
        • The DAAD PRIME fellowship
        • Meet the Helmholtz Association
        • Learn more about the new Erasmus+ programme for PhD students
        • Interdisciplinary research
        • Global health research
        • Digital learning
        • Meet the German Research Foundation
        • Meet the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
        • Ask a professor
        • Postdoctoral Opportunities in Germany
        • Doctorate Opportunities in Germany
        • The German research landscape
        • Doing research in humanities
        • Women in science
        • Departmental research
        • Online talk: bioeconomy
        • Research opportunities for Indian scholars
        • Universities of Applied Sciences
        • German research clusters
        • Scientific start-ups in Germany
        • Artificial intelligence
        • Online talks for science administrators
        • Future of work
        • How is a research group structured?
        • How to do research in industry
        • Learn from first-hand experience!
        • Funding your research stay
        • Registration Process and Technical Requirements
      • Innovation Week
    • Research news
    • Newsletter
      • Overview Newsletter
      • Subscribe
      • Newsletter 2022
        • Overview Newsletter 2022
        • February 2022
        • June 2022
      • Newsletter 2021
        • Overview Newsletter 2021
        • December 2021
        • October 2021
        • August 2021
        • June 2021
        • April 2021
        • February 2021
    • Our publications
    • Success stories
  1. Home
  2. News & Research Areas
  3. Global Health

Collaborating for the sake of human and animal health

Animal health and various environmental factors have a bearing on human health. The One Health approach takes all the different aspects into consideration and explores connections between them. A One Health centre of international standing is now being established in Greifswald.

A scientist is holding a planet in their hands.

©Shutterstock

Many things are interconnected in our increasingly globalised world. That’s a nice idea in principle, and one that offers many opportunities – though it also entails some risks. All of this is researched with respect to health and the environment in the area of One Health.

But what does One Health actually mean? It is an overarching approach aimed at promoting the wellbeing of humans and animals, while also taking ecology into account. Which reciprocal effects exist between human, animal and plant health? How is the outbreak of diseases in animals and humans connected to biodiversity? How can pandemics be prevented? These are the kind of questions that One Health seeks to answer. Research in this field – like the approach itself – is still in its infancy. The north German university town of Greifswald has set itself the goal of becoming an international centre for One Health research.

A high security laboratory for research on large animals

“In Greifswald we have a number of internationally visible research institutions with complementary expertise in the area of One Health”, says Professor Katharina Riedel, rector of the University of Greifswald. From 2020 to 2021, she served as acting founding director – until Professor Fabian Leendertz was appointed as the new director – and played a key role in setting up the new Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH) in Greifswald.

The HIOH, an institute of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), is a perfect fit for the One Health research environment in Greifswald: via a cooperation agreement, the HIOH is closely affiliated with its partners, namely the University of Greifswald, Greifswald University Medicine and the Friedrich-Löffler-Institut (FLI), Germany’s Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, which is located ten kilometres away on the island of Rehm.

Portrait of Prof. Dr. Katharina Riedel

©Universität Greifswald/Lukas Voigt

Which pathogen is set to jump to humans next, after SARS-CoV-2?

“In 2019, when we were getting geared up for One Health research here in Greifswald, we could not have imagined just what an urgent topic this would become only a short time later”, says Riedel. The global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020 made it quite clear that pathogens can jump from animals to humans – and that this can have very grave consequences in some cases. “One Health also investigates how such events come about – and how they can be prevented or at least detected at an early stage in the future”, Riedel explains.

In this context, it is essentially always the case that the – global – connections between nature and humans are the key. Accordingly, the research alliance also collaborates with numerous international organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). In addition, cooperation is underway with research institutions such as the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa and the Institut Pasteur in Cambodia.

One of the main research objectives is to discover which viruses are carried by animals and where, and where there is a particularly high risk of these being passed on to humans. However, a research project is also underway to find out why resistance to antibiotics develops, what role in this is played by humans, animals and the environment, and what steps could  be taken to prevent this from happening.

There are also other relevant aspects. “One Health is also about understanding how people’s physical and mental health are affected if they spend a period of time in an intact environment such as a natural forest”, says Riedel, explaining that this is another of the fascinating and indeed agreeable facets of One Health: it is not merely about preventing illness but about promoting good health. Though of course the two are inextricably linked in any case.

Get updates! If you want to stay informed, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, WeChat, YouTube or via RSS and subscribe to our newsletter.

Publisher BMBF Website
Editor DAAD Website
  • Contact us
  • About us
  • Imprint
  • Data protection