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Academic freedom and meaningful international cooperation are needed to safeguard good health and well-being globally

Nature Medicine volume 31, pages 3958–3959 (2025)Cite this article

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The World Health Summit (WHS) Academic Alliance currently comprises 28 leading universities and scientific organizations from all continents. Although they work in very different local environments, the members of the alliance are united in their goal of promoting equity and quality in health and on the principle that research and implementation should benefit all global citizens.

The COVID-19 pandemic reminded us, at a high and painful cost, that in an interconnected world “no one is safe until everyone is safe”1. Without mutual collaboration and shared responsibility (also known as multilateralism), it is impossible to protect or improve global population health2. Human physiology, disease mechanisms, and the principles of prevention and medical countermeasures are the same everywhere. Thus, scientific insight, combined with global cooperation for implementation, is an indispensable and invaluable resource for improving health worldwide.

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Acknowledgements

L.A., D.D.B., A.A.H., C.-S.L., D.N., A.R.P., L.d.A.S., A.T., Y.-Y.T., B.S.T., F.N.T. and S.Z. are members of the World Health Summit Academic Alliance Executive Committee. M.F., S.S.P. and L.S. were supporting writers. The list of authors is ordered alphabetically by surname. The views expressed in this paper are individual perspectives of members of the WHS Academic Alliance and do not represent the views of their listed institutions or affiliations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical College East Africa & Brain and Mind Institute, Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya

    Lukoye Atwoli

  2. Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Daniela De Biase

  3. World Health Summit, Berlin, Germany

    Marinus Fislage, Axel R. Pries & Linda Sebbas

  4. School of Public Health, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Adnan A. Hyder

  5. Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Chak-Sing Lau

  6. College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

    Damalie Nakanjako

  7. Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden

    Stefan Swartling Peterson

  8. University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Luis de Almeida Sampaio

  9. Center of Excellence for Global Health, Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Amirhossein Takian

  10. Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Yik-Ying Teo

  11. NIMS University, Jaipur, India

    Balvir S. Tomar

  12. International Academic Relations Department, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Feyza Nur Tuncer

  13. Department of Genetics, Aziz Sancar Institute of Experimental Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Feyza Nur Tuncer

  14. School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Sophia Zoungas

Authors
  1. Lukoye Atwoli
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  2. Daniela De Biase
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  3. Marinus Fislage
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  5. Chak-Sing Lau
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  6. Damalie Nakanjako
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  8. Axel R. Pries
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  9. Luis de Almeida Sampaio
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  10. Linda Sebbas
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  13. Balvir S. Tomar
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  14. Feyza Nur Tuncer
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  15. Sophia Zoungas
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Axel R. Pries.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Atwoli, L., De Biase, D., Fislage, M. et al. Academic freedom and meaningful international cooperation are needed to safeguard good health and well-being globally. Nat Med 31, 3958–3959 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-04026-6

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