Researchers explored One Health as an opportunity for interdisciplinary research
Kristina Karlsson Green, Yonas Meheretu and Torun Wallgren, are some of the researchers who joined this year’s Researcher Residency arranged by SLU Future One Health at the Philipsonska gården in Strängnäs. We asked them about their experiences and takeaways from the residency.
This year’s researcher residency focused on the One Health concept within SLU and the opportunities for future research at the crossroads between human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health. The researchers discussed potential future research collaborations within One Health by bridging boundaries between different disciplines.
Researchers from all the faculties at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) participated (Forest Sciences, Landscape Architecture, Horticulture and Crop Production Sciences, Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science).
One of the participating researchers was Torun Wallgren, a researcher at the Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare at SLU in Uppsala. She is connected to the division of environment, care, and herd health and works mainly with education and research on pigs and pig production.
“I applied for this researcher residency for several reasons. Primarily, I am very interested in OneHealth as a concept, and it aligns perfectly with my own research topic. Through the researcher residency, I hoped to meet others working on adjacent topics and gain inspiration for new approaches”, says Torun Wallgren.
“I could not anticipate beforehand all the new insights that I was going to get on the residency! On a personal level, realizing that mosquitoes are impacted by their early environment in similar ways as pigs and other farm animals made me excited to go home and continue with my ongoing projects. On a more overall level, I gained many new insights into the other aspects of One Health and how they are connected to the areas I am working on”, she continues.
What did you find most inspiring?
“We were able to work in groups on interesting research topics! In a relatively short time, we were able to share our individual knowledge, combine it, and build the start of a nice approach to investigate and solve the problem”, says Torun Wallgren.
Kristina Karlsson Green is a researcher at the Department of Plant Protection Biology, focusing on the genetic variation within a species and how to use this variation for sustainable plant protection methods.
By participating in the Researcher Residency, Kristina Karlsson Green hoped to learn more about the One Health approach and find new connections to develop research projects with, but also to learn and reflect upon interdisciplinarity in general as she teaches interdisciplinary courses.
What did you find most inspiring?
“To discuss new research projects and to see how my own research fits with other disciplines and could create a whole new project”, says Kristina Karlsson Green.
Yonas Meheretu, is a researcher at the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies at SLU in Umeå. He studies small mammal ecology and their public relevance within the One Health framework and rodent pest management. He heard about the researcher residency from a colleague and decided to apply.
“I heard that the event would be a very good opportunity to network with SLU colleagues who have similar One Health interests”, says Yonas Meheretu.
“I realized that I could network with colleagues from several other disciplines on One Health issues, than I could have thought before attending the meeting. I now see opportunities for wider and more diverse research opportunities than I had previously been familiar with”, he continues.
What did you find most inspiring?
“The realization that disease and health challenges cannot be addressed better in isolation, by one or two disciplines, and that motivates me to pursue cross-cutting research that brings together multiple disciplines”.