Undertaken within the framework of the EU COST science and technology cooperation, EU BEACON One Health education -Building Education and One Health with Adaptive Convergence and Open Networks-, is committed to setting a new benchmark for health education among school students. This cross-border initiative convenes a diverse array of experts and stakeholders to design and implement open courseware curricula in the One Health field, to be adopted throughout the EU COST area as part of our action mandate. The educational resources will be freely accessible, adaptable to local contexts, and embedded into existing school curricula, ensuring equitable access to high-quality health education.

The ambition is to develop and implement open courseware and new one health curricula across the entire EU, ensuring consistent, equitable access to high-quality educational resources. In parallel, the action will design a tutor-carer expert system—an open, ethically governed, AI-enabled platform that teaches One Health concepts interactively, facilitates collaborative learning, and connects school children across regions. This system will be complemented by other open-source learning and communication tools, enabling students to work together on real-life challenges, apply open technologies, integrate local expertise, and make informed, health-oriented decisions. The approach will incorporate habit formation and evidence-based decision-making, ensuring learning translates into sustained behavioural change. All activities will be driven by funded action-research missions, conducted both in person and online, to strengthen the network’s operational capacity, advance the careers of its members, and maximise the collective ability to achieve our objectives. This structured progression will be sustained throughout the four-year funding period, extending until late 2029, with measurable milestones at each stage.

The urgency of this work cannot be overstated. In a world facing escalating global health crises, climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequities, today’s students must be equipped with the skills, knowledge, and ethical grounding to become the leaders of tomorrow. One health is essential in this endeavour, as it addresses the inseparable links between human health, animal health, and the health of our shared environment, providing a unifying framework to reverse destructive trends and foster sustainable societies. By aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals -particularly SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being, SDG 4 Quality Education, SDG 13 Climate Action, SDG 15 Life on Land, and SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals- EU BEACON positions one health education as a strategic, long-term investment in planetary resilience, human dignity and capacity to overcome current crisis while averting new ones.

Our mission is to empower students to become informed, health-literate global citizens, capable of overcoming personal and local challenges while contributing to solutions for complex international problems. By combining pioneering technology with the guidance of educators, researchers, and community leaders, our action, will nurture a generation of proactive youth who can shape a healthier, fairer, and more sustainable future, both within Europe and worldwide.