Circle U. has selected eleven projects for its 2025 seed-funding round, supporting new academic, professional and student-led initiatives across the alliance. The funded proposals reflect the alliance’s commitment to interdisciplinarity, sustainability, inclusion and long-term cooperation among its member universities. Each month, we spotlight one of these projects.
Training future doctors for planetary health
Recognising the urgent need to transform medical education in the face of the ecological crisis, Planetary Health in European Medical Education (PHEMED) aims to embed Planetary Health (PH) into European medical curricula. Led by Victoire de Lastours (Université Paris Cité), the project seeks to equip current and future doctors, as well as educators, with transdisciplinary knowledge of the interdependence between human health and Earth systems.
The project brings together four leading European medical schools and adopts a strongly student-led approach. It promotes low-carbon collaboration, innovative teaching methods and “internationalisation from home”, allowing students to benefit from international learning experiences without the need to travel. PHEMED will develop shared learning resources, including a common European syllabus in Planetary Health, and support the creation of a community of future leaders in the field.
Victoire de Lastours tells us more about her project.
Why does this project matter?
Planetary Health remains largely absent from medical curricula, despite its growing relevance for clinical practice. PHEMED responds to this gap by bringing together four European medical schools to deliver a multidisciplinary and multicultural approach to Planetary Health challenges.
Medical students are eager to learn sustainable practices but often feel unprepared to address these issues. By involving students early in the process and using innovative, student-led tools, the team aims to create a dynamic community aligned with Planetary Health (PH) practices.
Victoire de Lastours, project leader (Université Paris Cité)
Students will be sustaining the community, becoming ambassadors to spread the project results and deliverables, train their peers, and engage with society as advocates for sustainable healthcare.
The project also promotes the internationalisation of medical curricula in a context of rising living costs and growing awareness of the environmental impact of travel. Through online collaboration and shared teaching activities, students can access international perspectives while remaining at their home institutions. Planetary Health lends itself particularly well to this transdisciplinary approach, as it directly shapes future medical practice.
PHEMED aims at reshaping the next generation’s medical practice, increasing awareness of medical students and professionals on PH, but also to change and adapt their practice to tackle PH challenges (new viruses, pandemics…).
What will happen this year, within your project?
PHEMED will implement a teaching planetary health seminar for professors, associate professors and lecturers with an interest in PH. The seminars will be held over 3 days with 7 hours of teaching per day, with an expected number of 12-16 attendees.
The educational content of the seminars will be discussed and decided by the team. The trainers will be academic experts of the planetary health framework recruited within the planetary health network.
The modalities of the training will be elaborated with the centres of educational development, to use modern and innovative pedagogical techniques such as case-based learning, role-play, serious games, board games... Trainers will also be taught to address mental health aspects and identify its early signs in students to provide help.
An introduction to research in planetary health will be proposed to all the participants.
All the participants will be trained to become planetary health ambassadors. Resources used during the training will be sent to all participants and available by a simple email request to any person interested (soon also on an online platform).
