Global and Environmental Aspects on Neurohealth 2025

Content

During the course, you will learn more about the interplay between health and the environment, with a special focus on neurological diseases and disorders as well as children’s development. The course will give you a broad overview of different topics related to environment and health, taught by active researchers and experts in their respective fields.

The course runs full-time for five weeks, with one week on campus in Uppsala and the other weeks online (Zoom). The teaching consists of lectures and seminars as well as project work. During the course, you will work on a group project in the form of challenge-based learning, where you will investigate a city or area of your choice regarding environmental risk factors for adverse neurological outcomes and possible interventions to mitigate the risks. During the project, you will meet regularly with a supervisor to help you along the way.

The course was given for the first time in the fall of 2023 and highly appreciated by students; below are a few citations from the course evaluation:

• “I enjoyed working with students from different research areas as well as from different countries. This really is an outstanding benefit of the ENLIGHT network.”
• “I liked how student input was always very appreciated.”
• “The group project was challenging but gave a good impression of how projects in the ’real world’ could go if we want to work as policy advisors for example.”
• “Really liked the lectures where they gave concrete examples of cases involving the different pollutants and the effects on health.”
• “As an ENLIGHT student, the group assignment has been wonderful. This created the opportunity to already get to know some of the classmates before the onsite week.”

During the on-campus week, you will have time to focus on project work, study visits, and guest lecturers. You will also have time to enjoy wonderful Uppsala and social gatherings.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

• Describe the symptoms and possible mechanisms of our most common neurological diseases and neuropsychiatric disabilities (NPD) (overall neurohealth)
• Explain the concept of autoimmunity and its significance for the emergence of neurological disease
• Account for currently known environmental factors and environmental pollution that may constitute risk factors for the occurrence of neurological disease and NPD
• Describe how epidemiological studies and cell and animal models can be used to study the effect of environmental factors and environmental pollution as possible risk factors for the onset of neurological disease and NPF
• Account for possible risk factors linked to neurohealth in people's immediate environment (cities/regions) in different parts of the world

Skills and abilities

• Be able to critically review and evaluate scientific literature regarding risk factors linked to neurohealth
• Be able to perform basic epidemiological statistical calculations

Judgement and approach

• Critically review and evaluate risk factors and their evidence
• Justify the ethical and legal considerations that need to be made when collecting data and connecting data between several registers when following individuals over time in epidemiological studies
• Describe how economic and social development, with or without a sustainability perspective, may affect the environment and human neurohealth

Programme

The course is planned to allow students to follow it, even though you have other courses running in parallel.

For the first four weeks, teaching will consist mainly of lectures. The lectures are not mandatory, and many will be recorded so the students can watch them afterward.

In parallel, the students work with their projects; they can plan this to work with their schedules. During one afternoon each week, we will have supervisor meetings for the student projects; these meetings are mandatory.

During the last week of the course, we will meet on-site in Uppsala to focus on the projects, study visits, and guest lectures.

Assessment

Active participation in all compulsory modules and group exercises corresponding to 4.5 ECTS credits is required to pass the course. The theoretical part of the course is examined through a written exam equivalent to 3 ECTS credits.

If there are special reasons, the examiner may make exceptions from the specified examination method and allow the student to be examined in another way. Special reasons can, for example, be special educational support needed, as informed by the University coordinator.

Lecturers

• Prof. Daniela Ostatníková, Institute of Physiology, Academic Research Center for Autism, Comenius University, Faculty of Medicine
• Prof. Hans Orru, Institute of Family Medicine and Public Health, Department of Public Health, University of Tartu
• Valentina Gallo, Associate Professor in Epidemiology & Sustainable Health, University of Groningen
• Aitana Lertxundi, Ph.D., Department of Preventive medicine and public health, University of the Basque Country
• Jelle Van Cauwenberg, Phd, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Département d'Enseignement
• Syed Moshfiqur Rahman, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, Global Health & Migration, Dept. of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University
• Kim Kultima, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, Dept. of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University
• Henrik Carlsson, PhD, Dept. of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University
• Ida Erngren, PhD, Dept. of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University

Course dates

On-site period: 3 - 7 Nov 2025 in Uppsala

Online period: 6 - 31 Oct 2025. 

The entire course runs 5 weeks full-time, four weeks online, and one week on-site in Uppsala.

Entry requirements: having obtained 120 ECTS from a medical, nursing, physiotherapist, biomedicine, pharmacy, or biology programme or other courses providing equivalent knowledge.

Students from all ENLIGHT partner universities are eligible to participate. Students will be selected at each of these universities separately. Students interested in the course need to apply via their home university. They should contact their faculty or programme to verify whether it can fit in their curriculum and to ensure academic recognition of the credits obtained. The home university will select the permitted number of students, inform the students as soon as possible, and then send these names to the host institution. Unsuccessful students will be placed on a waiting list and may get a place, if other universities do not use all their allocated places. Waiting lists are encouraged.

Please select your home university below and contact your ENLIGHT coordinator for further information on the application process or consult the linked information.

• University of the Basque Country: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• University of Bern: Application instructions for students at the University of Bern
• University of Bordeaux: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Comenius University Bratislava: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• University of Galway: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Ghent University:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (see information about BIP's)
• University of Groningen: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• University of Göttingen: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (for BIP’s) or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (other courses)
• University of Tartu: Application instructions for students at the University of Tartu
• Uppsala University: Application instructions for students at Uppsala University.

Kim Kultima, Senior Lecturer
Department of Medical Sciences, Clinical Chemistry
Uppsala University
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.