THE AHEAD NETWORK
About The AHEAD Network
The association AHEAD Network is an interdisciplinary Mediterranean research network. Its purpose is to promote scientific cooperation and the development of interdisciplinary research around contemporary issues related to environment, health and development. The main activities of the network fall within disciplines such as economics, ecology, environmental, climate and health sciences, as well as any other scientific discipline contributing to the analysis of interactions between environment, health, and population development. The AHEAD Network pays particular attention to the analysis of interactions between environmental and health challenges, as well as to the integration of the Sustainable Development Goals into public policies, particularly in the Southern Mediterranean region.
AHEAD, a unique structure
This current initiative emerges from the identification of a fourfold necessity:
First and foremost, it stems from the observation that environmental and health issues—due to their growing pervasiveness and multidimensional nature—cannot be the sole domain of a single scientific discipline. Thus, it is essential to adopt, at the very least, a multidisciplinary approach within a sufficiently relevant geographic framework for environmental analysis.
Second, confining to a narrow geographic scope is scientifically meaningless given the typically transboundary nature of the environmental and health phenomena targeted. Anchoring this project in a decidedly Mediterranean context (from Marseille) while advocating for multi- and interdisciplinary approaches to environmental issues is, therefore, a natural starting point.
Third, such an initiative cannot go without grounding the Network in real and concrete sustainable development challenges. The involvement of the socio-economic sphere — particularly businesses and institutions already engaged in significant sustainable development and green innovation initiatives—becomes an absolute necessity, forming the intersectoral foundation of this Mediterranean project.
Last but not least, any scientific network within a geographically diverse academic landscape must establish a realistic and effective doctoral training program, especially in support of recent academic excellence initiatives in the southern Mediterranean.
As it stands, the AHEAD Network has a dual academic and developmental focus:
➩ Academic, through research and doctoral training dimensions.
➩ Developmental, as a forum for interaction between academic researchers and sustainable development entrepreneurs, as well as through the aforementioned training dimension.
The full openness of research, studies, and doctoral training to interdisciplinarity and intersectorality further strengthens the developmental objectives of the Consortium project.
* The AHEAD Network is a registered association under the French Law of 1901.