The Wellcome Trust is funding a groundbreaking international initiative aimed at revolutionizing evidence synthesis for climate and health policy. Led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the project will develop AI-powered tools to accelerate the synthesis of research, making it faster, cheaper, and more useful for policymakers around the world. With a focus on health-centered climate action, the project is poised to transform how scientific evidence is gathered, analyzed, and delivered, addressing the urgent need for timely, rigorous insights to support climate action.
DESTINY, an acronym for Digital Evidence Synthesis Tool Innovation Yielding Improvements in Climate & Health, is designed to leverage the latest advances in AI to automate tasks like detecting relevant studies, extracting findings, and synthesizing insights. The goal is to provide real-time, living evidence that can guide decisions on climate policy, ensuring that scientific knowledge is both up-to-date and actionable. This project is especially important as it comes at a time when the climate crisis is deeply intertwined with human health, and policymakers require reliable, accessible evidence to design effective interventions. While AI will accelerate the process, human oversight remains critical to maintain scientific rigor and ensure that evidence is used responsibly.
The DESTINY project is part of a broader effort to develop better evidence-gathering infrastructure for global challenges, with nearly €70 million in funding backing similar initiatives. With partners from prestigious institutions such as University College London, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, DESTINY is positioned to make a significant impact on how the world synthesizes and applies scientific research to climate and health policy. By engaging a diverse set of global stakeholders, the project also aims to ensure that these innovations are inclusive and accessible to all, reinforcing the need for equity in the creation of global evidence infrastructure. As this project gets underway in 2025, it promises to push the boundaries of what is possible in evidence synthesis, providing critical tools to help the world respond more effectively to the climate crisis.
More information here: https://destiny-evidence.github.io/website/