Presentation
As a center of excellence, EUR UNITEID aims to meet the scientific, health and environmental challenges posed by emerging infectious diseases.
From ecosystems to pandemics: understanding risks for better prevention
The challenges
Current upheavals in human-environment interactions are conducive to the emergence of infectious diseases, as illustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Monkeypox epidemic, and the occurrence of indigenous cases of arbovirosis in France.
In this context, it is urgent to strengthen our capacity to prevent, detect and respond to these growing threats. Teaching and research programs in this field must include a transdisciplinary approach, and international partnerships must be strengthened to promote global research into ecosystems, vectors and animal reservoirs of zoonoses. Improving our ability to detect and respond to epidemics also requires us to strengthen our skills in epidemiology, modeling, and pathogen diagnostics and sequencing. Lessons learned from COVID-19 also underline the importance of anticipating the socio-economic consequences of pandemics. Finally, antimicrobial resistance also represents a challenge for the future, which could lead to almost 400,000 annual deaths in Europe by 2050 (WHO and EU estimates).
According to the Conseil de veille et d'anticipation des risques sanitaires - COVARS, the main risks identified for human health in France in 2025 - 2030 in terms of MIE are :
- pandemic respiratory viruses
- arboviroses
- Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever
In the South of France, an area heavily affected by global warming, we are witnessing the emergence of vector-borne risks: arboviroses (imported and indigenous arboviroses: Dengue, Chikungunya, West-Nile virus), as well as tick-borne vector-borne diseases (Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever).
Zoonotic risks are present, such as the avian influenza virus or hepatitis E, and animal diseases with risks of epizootics such as epizootic haemorrhagic disease, or, as observed at the end of 2025, lumpy skin disease. This calls for clinical, microbiological and genomic monitoring, at the interface between animal, environmental and human health. In addition, the spread of antibiotic resistance is leading to fears of therapeutic impasses.
A single health care system but several scientific disciplines to deal with emerging infections
Led by the University of Toulouse, at the head of a consortium of nine partners, the UNITEID University Research School (University of Toulouse graduate school of Emerging Infectious Diseases) aims to develop capabilities for preventing and responding to health crises through early detection of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), epidemiological and molecular surveillance of emerging pathogens and vectors in ecosystems, and the development of diagnostic and therapeutic resources.
EUR UNITEID offers excellent training courses at Master's and PhD level, mobilizing several disciplines and sectors to combat the threats of EIMs in an integrated «One Health» approach to human, animal and environmental health, in order to train tomorrow's EIM experts.
UNITEID relies in particular on regional expertise in vectors and ecosystems, animal health, zoonoses and interactions with the agri-food chain (interactions between livestock, effluents, water networks, and the spread of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance), in a region where agriculture and livestock breeding are strong economic drivers.
Beyond these regional specificities, EUR UNITEID's international network enables a global approach to ecosystems and MIE threats in the North and South. With this in mind, EUR UNITEID offers students and researchers the opportunity to carry out inward and outward mobility projects, and provides for the establishment of double degrees and joint doctorates with partner universities abroad.