CLINF: An Integrated Project Design

As introduced in the preceding chapter of this book, the CLINF Nordic Centre of Excellence (NCoE) addresses the broad scenario of warming northern landscapes transforming into warmer biomes, that may attract vector organisms such as ticks, mosquitoes, and rodents. These have the potential of carrying new zoonotic infections onto humans and husbandry animals of the North. With Far-North societies being generally dependent on their husbandry animals, i.e. by terms of economy, status, and tradition, an altered exposure towards infectious diseases may strike at the very heart of northern cultures. When added to other direct or indirect societal effects of climate change, such as the direct effects of altered human exposure, the resulting holistic approach to health is called OneHealth. CLINF is devoted to inquiring into the OneHealth effects of a warming North. Addressing such a broad topic requires an interdisciplinary science approach, in combination with an elaborative plan for how to engage bilaterally with stakeholders at scales ranging from the local to the international. The following chapter outlines the CLINF endeavour, from typical OneHealth problem identification and formulation, through principles of integrated projects design into the outlines of the finally implemented NCoE, and further on to the resulting discoveries and lessons learned. The chapter may be perceived as a case-study of integrated projects design, and as an example to study for others that find themselves in the situation of designing a large integrated science project.