Zoonotic diseases, naturally transmissible between humans and animals, are a growing global threat to health, economies, and societies. Climate change amplifies these risks by altering transmission and expanding disease ranges. Austria faces already rising burdens from diseases like West Nile virus or tick-borne encephalitis but lacks a national framework to assess and prioritize climate-sensitive zoonoses, which hinders prevention and control efforts.

This project – led by the Veterinary University Vienna – fills this gap by creating a tailored framework to identify and rank zoonoses posing the greatest risks. Using a transdisciplinary One Health approach, it combines expertise from veterinary science, medicine, epidemiology, climate and disaster research.

A comprehensive database will link zoonoses with climate hazards, while expert input from multiple disciplines will help evaluate societal impacts and establish Austria-specific priorities. Advanced analytical methods will be used to map causal relationships between climate hazards and zoonotic outbreaks, deepening understanding of transmission pathways and revealing critical points for intervention.

In collaboration with stakeholders, the project will co-create practical and locally adapted intervention strategies and develop a bilingual interactive decision-support tool to communicate risks, transmission pathways, and solutions in an accessible way. The project design emphasizes sustainability through virtual collaboration and computational modeling, ensuring compliance with ethics and data protection standards.

Its outcomes will include Austria’s first national framework for prioritizing climate-sensitive zoonoses, a public database of climate–disease links, and an interactive tool to support policymakers and stakeholders. By fostering collaboration, producing actionable knowledge, and disseminating results openly, the project will strengthen Austria’s preparedness and resilience while positioning the country as a leader in climate-sensitive zoonotic research and policy.

The project is funded by the Austrian Climate Research Program (ACRP) of the Climate and Energy Fund.