Rx One Health 2026 Recap

This summer marked a first for the Rx One Health Field Institute: Ireland became the newest setting for the One Health Institute’s signature experiential training program.

Hosted in partnership with University College Dublin, the two-week program brought together 31 participants representing 19 countries, with expertise spanning human, animal, plant and environmental health, and the social sciences. Together, they explored what it means to put One Health into practice while learning from experts, communities, and one another across Dublin and Galway.

The setting was new, but the philosophy behind Rx One Health remained the same: some of the most valuable lessons happen when participants step outside their own disciplines and experience complex health challenges firsthand.

Ireland as a One Health classroom

Throughout the program, participants examined topics ranging from sustainable food systems and biodiversity to marine ecosystems, water quality, conservation, risk communication and disaster preparedness. Much of that learning happened outside a traditional classroom.

Visits to the Phoenix Park Biodiversity Centre and Dublin Zoo offered opportunities to explore biodiversity, conservation and wildlife health, while experiences with the Marine Institute, Galway Atlantaquaria and along Grattan Beach brought participants closer to the connections between ocean health, environmental change and the species and communities that depend on marine ecosystems. At Lyons Farm, participants considered agriculture and sustainable food systems through another One Health lens. Each experience provided a different piece of a much larger picture.

Learning across disciplines and borders

The program brought together expertise from UC Davis and Ireland, creating opportunities for participants to learn from One Health leaders while building relationships with peers from around the world.

The experience culminated in interdisciplinary capstone projects, asking participants to draw upon the knowledge, perspectives, and partnerships they had developed throughout the course to propose solutions to real-world One Health challenges. In the process, participants weren't simply learning about One Health – they were practicing how to do it.

Building a global One Health community

Bringing Rx One Health to Ireland represents more than a new destination for the program. It expands a global learning community built around a shared understanding that improving health for all requires collaboration across professions, sectors, communities, and borders.

For this year’s cohort, as it is with every Rx One Health cohort, those connections now extend well beyond the two weeks they spent together in Ireland. The relationships formed through programs like Rx One Health can become future research collaborations, professional partnerships, and networks of colleagues working toward shared goals around the world.

For the One Health Institute, that's an important measure of the program's impact: preparing people not only to understand the connections between animal, human, and environmental health, but to build the partnerships needed to act on them.

The first Rx One Health Field Institute in Ireland may have come to a close, but the collaborations it sparked are only beginning.