The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Health Community of Practice (CoP) opened Day 1 of its 2025 Annual Meeting, virtually, on December 8th, bringing together global experts to discuss operational pathways for advancing One Health within the GEO Post-2025 Strategy. During the Key Regional Health Highlights 2025 Session, insights from four (4) regional GEO initiatives were featured, including a high-impact contribution from Dr. Haris Kontoes, Research Director of the National Observatory of Athens / Operational Unit BEYOND Centre for Earth Observation Research and Satellite Remote Sensing, representing EuroGEO.
Dr. Kontoes’ intervention underscored Europe’s rapidly growing commitment to Earth Intelligence and the operational integration of environmental and health data systems. His presentation, co-developed with Ms. Mariza Kaskara, BEYOND’s Research Associate and Project Manager, in collaboration with Dr. Paschalis Tziastas, Policy Officer from the European Commission’s DG RTD, provided a comprehensive overview at how EuroGEO is shaping One Health policy, technology, and capacity building across the region and beyond.
Central elements of Dr. Kontoes’ presentation included:
- Highlights from expert studies and EuroGEO Workshop 2025
- Conclusions of EuroGEO Workshop 2025 & Expert studies in the OneHealth
- Top EuroGEO highlights of 2025
- EuroGEO Action Group contribution in the One Health Sector
- Key One Health Actions at the EU level -linked with EuroGEO-
- EuroGEO related One Health Projects
- Potential collaborations with the GEO Health CoP on One Health topics
- GEO-CRADLE GEO Enabling Mechanism: Engagement of large and skilled EO communities
In his capacity as the EuroGEO Action Group Coordinator and leader of the EuroGEO Action Group on Disastersand Health, Dr. Kontoes emphasized EuroGEO’s mission to Combine, Coordinate, and Cooperate across sectors—a foundational principle for achieving the One Health vision. He highlighted how EuroGEO is building on Europe’s powerful assets, including the Copernicus programme, EU Space infrastructures, and emerging digital ecosystems such as DestinE and EU Data Spaces. These frameworks, he noted, enable integrated evidence-based approaches essential for health security, disease prevention, and climate resilience. EuroGEO’s strategic alignment with the GEO Post-2025 vision positions Europe at the forefront of environmental-health intelligence.
Dr. Kontoes presented major conclusions deriving from the JRC/KCEO-funded expert EuroGEO studies in One Health and from the EuroGEO Workshop 2025, which point to a “united push toward Earth Intelligence” across Europe. Notable insights included:
- Clear alignment between EuroGEO actions and the GEO Post-2025 Strategy;
- The need to move from prototype systems to operational early warning services;
- The call for cross-border infectious disease collaborations;
- Recommendations for a harmonized European surveillance dashboard integrating climate and health indicators;
- Expansion of integrated early warning systems to new regions, diseases, and datasets.
In outlining EuroGEO’s top highlights for 2025, Dr. Kontoes spotlighted several flagship initiatives such as the Copernicus Health Hub, a new collaborative platform bridging environmental and health communities, providing user-centric intelligence on physical and mental well-being and the European Climate and Health Observatory (Climate-ADAPT), a rapidly expanding knowledge base supporting climate adaptation policies through robust health-climate insights.
Dr. Kontoes highlighted a remarkable portfolio of EuroGEO-supported initiatives and projects shaping the global One Health landscape, including: EYWA, e-shape, E4Warning,PLANET4HEALTH, TRIGGER, OneAquaHealth, SPRINGS, TULIP, CitiObs, MOSAIC, among others. These projects address vector-borne diseases, antimicrobial resistance, biodiversity loss, environmental pollution, heat exposure, and air quality—demonstrating Europe’s multidimensional One Health strategy.
A significant portion of Dr. Kontoes’ presentation focused on opportunities for strengthened cooperation between EuroGEO and the broader GEO Health Community of Practice. Proposed areas include:
- Joint EO-enabled One Health early-warning pilots for heat-health risks, vector-borne diseases, water quality, and air pollution;
- Harmonization of environmental–health indicators to enable global comparability;
- Shared data spaces enabling secure interoperability between health surveillance and Earth observation systems;
- Capacity-building efforts for Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific;
- Co-organisation of workshops & cross-community engagement, linking EuroGEO pilots with GEO Health CoP practitioners, WHO Regional Office for Europe, ECDC, Africa CDC.
Dr. Kontoes concluded by reaffirming EuroGEO’s commitment to COMBINE, COORDINATE, COOPERATE - highlighting partnerships with scientific societies, indigenous communities, open-mapping volunteers, UN agencies, and private-sector innovators. He reiterated that operationalizing One Health requires not only advanced technology but also shared governance, shared data, and shared vision across all GEO regions.
- See Dr Kontoes presentation here
- See the full agenda of the GEO Health Community of Practice Annual Meeting 2025
- Discover GEO Health CoP here
- Discover more about EuroGEO here
