OpenAIRE Supports the Crete Declaration: Uniting Science for One Health

"A bold step toward a more resilient scientific future has just been taken with the publication of the Crete Declaration: Uniting Science for One Health in Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) (doi: 10.3897/rio.11.e176120). The declaration responds to a simple yet urgent reality: human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health are deeply interconnected, and today’s global challenges, including emerging diseases, climate instability, environmental contamination, antimicrobial resistance, and severe biodiversity loss, can no longer be addressed in isolation.

Signed in Heraklion, Crete, during LifeWatch ERIC’s Biodiversity and Ecosystem e-Science Conference (BEeS 2025), the declaration unites Europe’s (e-)infrastructures, organisations, and research projects committed to understanding and sustaining the living components of our biosphere. Their shared motivation is clear: to strengthen Europe’s resilience and leadership by integrating expertise across domains, sharing robust and interoperable data, by supporting innovation that can inform effective, evidence-based policy.

The Crete Declaration outlines the following four core objectives: 

• Strengthen strategic collaboration across scientific domains and infrastructures. 

•  Advance data integration and FAIR principles to accelerate Open Science. 

•  Support open innovation, emerging methods, and cross-domain solutions. 

•  Inform policy and the public with reliable scientific evidence that can guide resilient societal responses."