UZH has created the first university One Health Institute (OHI) in Europe. It aims to investigate how the health of humans, animals, and the environment are linked. To highlight the establishment’s interdisciplinary nature, it is being supported by three faculties: Vetsuisse Faculty, the Faculty of Medicine, and the Faculty of Science.
Elisabeth Stark, Vice President Research at UZH, commented in a press release from UZH: “By establishing an institute, we are giving the interdisciplinary One Health approach a solid long-term foundation at UZH and creating the conditions for it to have the greatest possible impact on society.” Two tenure-track assistant professorships (i.e. with the prospect of lifelong professorship) and another assistant professorship will be created.
Specific modules will be offered for teaching and international summer schools will be held. Over the long term, a master’s course is planned. The aims are ambitious, as Stark explains: “UZH has the potential and ambition to be a leader in One Health, both nationally and internationally, in the longer term.”
Once the collaboration has been set up, other UZH faculties are to be included to bring in ethical, sociocultural, legal, and political aspects, for example. Stephan Neuhauss, Vice Dean of Research at the Faculty of Science, stated: “The new institute illuminates how all the individual details we explore in our respective disciplines are connected. That’s what is gained from this institute – it will help us keep the bigger picture in mind.”
