A global ambition. The EUR UNITEID school (for University of Toulouse graduate school of emerging infectious dieseases) will welcome its first trainees at the start of the 2025 school year. Led by Paul Sabatier University (UT3), the project brings together ten institutional partners, ten research laboratories, as well as various companies and start-ups. The course will thus be open to students from scientific backgrounds, such as medicine, pharmacology, veterinary or engineering. Master’s and doctoral courses will be offered, with the ambition of training “120 master’s level students” and “45 doctoral students experts in MIE” within five years. The training offer is based on a multidisciplinary approach, in order to respond to current and future health challenges.
EIDs, a major global threat
The opening of EUR UNITEID takes place in a context of increasing risks linked to emerging infectious diseases, and their speed of development. Indeed, human activities, globalization and increasing travel favor their transmission, of which the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a significant example. Global warming and the degradation of ecosystems also contribute to the development of diseases, such as dengue fever, Zika or Chikungunya, spread by mosquitoes. Formerly “tropical diseases”, they are now established in France, particularly in Occitanie. The region indeed constitutes an area of choice for the observation of EID, due to its exposure to health risks (presence of the tiger mosquito, diversified animal breeding, etc.). They therefore threaten human health, but also their socio-economic system. Thus, the EUR UNITEID school aspires to train experts capable of studying and fighting against these evils.
A rare transdisciplinary approach in France
To date in France, the training offer dedicated to UEMs is insufficient and segmented between different disciplines, according to UT3. The establishment then wishes to centralize the different areas responsible for this issue, in order to act at different levels.
EUR UNITEID aims to develop our capacities for prevention and response to health crises through the early detection of EID threats, in particular emerging pathogens and vectors in ecosystems, their epidemiological and molecular surveillance, as well as the development of diagnostic and therapeutics”, indicates UT3 in a press release.
To do this, the site will be able to benefit from the support of its numerous private, institutional and scientific partners. Invested in an approach One HealthEUR UNITEID will combine the study of humans, animals and the environment.
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