The Heat Project- What are the impacts and solutions of increasing heat on humans and ecosystems?

A Pufendorf Initiative towards a Multidisciplinary Heat Research Collaboration at Lund University

This initiative aims at creating a multi- and cross-disciplinary research platform centered on solutions to the impacts of increasing heat, at the local level, resulting from anthropogenic climate change. That global warming entails increasing warm extremes, something which has already been observed, is a well-established outcome of climate change (IPCC 2013). Heat stress has severe effects on human society, people's health, animals and ecosystems.The heat research programme will by necessity engage scientists from a multitude of disciplines including the natural, engineering, medical, design, social and economic sciences as well as relevant stakeholders. The main objective is that the platform will trigger more cross-departmental collaborations and concrete research ideas under this umbrella. Our vision is to develop solutions that consider a variety of aspects in order to provide a scientifically sound basis for future policy-making addressing this urgent global societal challenge.