Our One Health Education Session at the UN Science Summit 2025

Science, ethics, and youth for planetary responsibility – EU BEACON voices at the heart of global education transformation

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Summary: our session One Health Education for a Sustainable World has been officially selected for inclusion in the Science Summit 2025, held in parallel with the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA80). Confirmed speakers include Professors Janaina Minelli, Sara Soto, Susan Michaels-Strasser, Mahmoud El Fiky, and Dr. Safieh Shah. The session aligns with the EU COST Action BEACON and will be delivered online. Governance, funding, and further coordination are underway with maximum transparency, scientific integrity, and ethical stewardship.

Session announcement, Science Summit 2025: from 9 to 26 September 2025, the United Nations Science Summit (UNGA80) will convene global leaders in science, education, and policy to articulate the centrality of scientific knowledge in shaping sustainable and just futures. The Summit, held in connection with the high-level week of the UN General Assembly in New York, hybrid with free online access, prioritizes planetary boundaries, public responsibility, and cross-sectoral cooperation toward the Sustainable Development Goals.

Amid widespread institutional failures and planetary threats, the acceptance of our session One Health Education for a Sustainable World: Integrating Systems Thinking, Technology, and Youth Empowerment into the official program is cause for profound reflection and shared purpose. This initiative is neither ornamental nor symbolic – it is a working declaration of principles, capabilities, and responsibilities. We aim to demonstrate, through interdisciplinary science and practical pedagogy, that education remains a decisive force for transformation.

Announcing Our One Health Education for a Sustainable World Session at UN Science

Session themes and objectives: this session brings forward actionable models for integrating One Health education across levels, contexts, and geographies.

Our session focuses on:

• Embedding systems thinking in curricula to reveal the interdependence of human, animal, and environmental health

• Ethically grounding the use of emerging technologies, including AI, within education and public health

• Enabling youth as co-creators of sustainable futures, not as passive recipients of knowledge

Through participatory, cross-sectoral, and open-source approaches, the session aligns with and advances SDGs 3, 4, 13, 16, and 17. It responds to the global need for epistemic justice, health equity, and civic capacity-building.

Our session speakers:

• Professor Sara Soto González – ISGlobal, Spain
  Renowned expert in infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and epidemiological transitions. Her work bridges field epidemiology and policy design, with special focus on vulnerable settings and equity in global health research.

• Professor Susan Michaels-Strasser – Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, USA
  Senior Director at ICAP and long-time leader in nursing education, maternal-child health, and global health workforce development. She has shaped institutional responses to HIV and primary care across multiple continents.

• Professor Dr. Mahmoud El Fiky – Cairo University, Egypt
  Surgeon and educator, leader of Egypt’s Health NCP for Horizon Europe. With over 130 peer-reviewed publications, he promotes global health collaboration, pediatric care reform, and the modernization of medical curricula.

• Professor Janaina Minelli de Oliveira Ramos – Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain
  Educational theorist focused on epistemological justice, environmental education, and sustainable pedagogies. A catalyst for inclusive curriculum reform and institutional transformation.

• Dr. Safieh Shah – IGDORE, Pakistan
  Medical doctor, open science advocate, and pioneer in ethical research under constraints. Her work integrates clinical medicine, planetary health, and gender equity, and is respected for its methodological clarity and commitment to underserved communities.

Alignment with EU COST action BEACON One Health education: this session has been designed in full alignment with the goals of the EU COST action BEACON One Health Education. The network – conceived under duress and built with determination – has recently received formal funding and support. Despite ongoing structural and personal challenges, our commitment remains unwavering. Professor María Jesús Lirola, current chair of this action, will represent us at the upcoming COST leadership workshop in Brussels. Further updates will follow.

We are working, to the limit of our capacities and within the highest ethical standards, to protect this initiative from opportunism, misuse, and manipulation. Every decision, proposal, and output will be made publicly available, subject to peer review, and grounded in open-source technologies. EU BEACON is not to serve private ambitions, but public responsibility, the educational and health needs of all the youth and children, specially that of those most harmed by systemic neglect.

Next steps and participation: we are preparing Horizon Europe calls within this framework. Expressions of interest are welcome and encouraged. For now, please contact [email protected] – institutional addresses will follow once disbursement processes are complete. Our operating principle is scientific truth in the open, with transparent governance and dedication to the shared good. We aim to build durable, equitable platforms of cooperation that outlast individual tenure and resist structural injustice.

A word of integrity and acknowledgement: the current moment requires clarity, both globally and us as an awarded network. It has been harsh, as most blows have been dealt in the dark of silence, hidden from our collective oversight. The action has suffered attempts at derailment, exclusion, and abuse of trust, some actually harming it and those among us truly working to make it work, in very troubling and serious ways, lies and normalized abuses allowing. Scientific networks must never be co-opted by power-seeking actors, nor be arenas of silent harm. We remain committed to the original goals of this action: protecting dignity, advancing science, and delivering justice through education and structural repair, truly supporting each other, to achieve the goals the best possible way.

This session will be conducted by exemplary professionals, individuals of proven character, expertise, and social conscience. They strive to not posture, but serve. This is the spirit that does define EU BEACON, and must be safeguarded, enforced: ethical science, inclusive education, and planetary responsibility. The session will be free to attend online. Updates, access links, and outcomes will be shared shortly. We move forward, not in denial of harm, but in collective resolve to end it. For the children, for the planet, and for the truth science is meant to uphold.