HELT 2025

“One Health : Advancing Global Health Through Law and Technology”

Health, Law, and Technology Symposium (HELT 2025)

April 24, 2025, Brussels, Belgium (In person only)

Following the success of HELT 2023 and HELT 2024, VUB’s Health & Ageing Law Lab (HALL) is delighted to announce that will take place in Brussels on April 24, 2025. This year’s theme is “One Health : Advancing Global Health through Law and Technology”. The symposium invites speakers and participants from a wide range of disciplines and professional backgrounds to share perspectives on the intersection of health, law and technology.

The "One Health" concept recognises the deep interconnection between human, animal, and environmental health. It promotes a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to addressing global health challenges, acknowledging the interdependencies between people, animals, and ecosystems. "One Health" aims to prevent and control these by fostering cooperation among sectors like medicine, veterinary science, and environmental management. It also addresses broader issues like antimicrobial resistance and the impacts of environmental degradation on health. By recognizing these interdependencies, the "One Health" approach facilitates more effective and sustainable solutions for global health, ensuring that efforts in one area support health outcomes across all three domains.

A younger concept is also emerging on “Planetary health”, mainly focusing on the environment (climate change and human health) and social determinants of human health. The widespread proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI), big data and related digital solutions across different sectors prompted the emergence of yet another concept, the “One Digital Health”.

This year’s edition of HELT 2025 will focus on key legal, ethical and technological issues associated with the "One Health" concept and their implications on global health. Specifically, a wide range of core subject areas will be explored, including:

Regulating Zoonotic Disease Prevention and Control
Data Privacy and Health Surveillance in a One-Health Approach
Health(y) Technology, Innovation, and Intellectual Property
Environmental Law, Climate Change, and Health
Digital Divide, Health Equality, and Right to Health

Official website of HELT 2025

Agenda

Keynote speech by Ms. Tilly Metz, Member of the European Parliament

Vice-Chair of the Committee on Public Health and Member of the Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety

Keynote speech by Prof. Dr. Carlos Des Neves

Chief Scientist at European Food Safety Authority and Co-Chair of the One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEH)

The Use of Secondary Data and the Goal of One Health

Organised by: Health and Ageing Law Lab

Vulnerability, Technology, and One Health: Intersectional Approaches to Global Health Challenges

Organised by: Health and Ageing Law Lab

From Data Return by Design to Ethical Secondary Use: A Scalable Approach to the Governance of Clinical Trial Data

Organised by: EU Project FACILITATE

Social and Human Centered XR Technologies for Health

Organised by: EU Project SUN

One Health: Exploring the Effects of Contemporary Legal, Environmental, and Technological Challenges to Digital Health Research

Organised by: Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law, University of Vienna

How can risk-prediction models contribute to 'One Health’

Organised by: EU Project SMARTCHANGE

AI in Health: Crafting Regulatory Frameworks for Trust and Safety

Organised by: World Health Organisation

Keynote Speaker

Prof. Dr. Carlos Gonçalo Das Neves

Chief Scientist, European Food Safety Authority

Carlos das Neves is EFSA’s Chief Scientist and has been a member of EFSA’s senior management team since November 2022.

A Portuguese and Norwegian national, Carlos was Director of Research and Internationalisation at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute (NVI) before joining EFSA and previously served as Head of Virology and Head of Food Safety & Emerging Threats at the NVI. Additionally, he was a Full Professor at The Arctic University of Norway (UiT) from 2012 to 2025.

Carlos is a veterinarian (DVM – Technical University of Lisbon) and holds a PhD in veterinary sciences (Norwegian School of Veterinary Sciences). He also has a Postgraduate Certificate in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a Certificate in Public Policy Analysis from the London School of Economics and Political Science. In April 2024, he has been appointed as a member and co-chair of the One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP), the scientific and strategic advisory group to the Quadripartite organisations – Food and Agriculture Organisation, UN Environment Programme, World Health Organization and World Organisation for Animal Health.

His areas of expertise include animal health, food safety, wildlife, emerging diseases, and One Health. He has led national and international research and development projects and has been a member of international panels and organisations related to his field of work. Carlos has several publications in peer-reviewed journals and books.

Ms. Tilly Metz

MEP (Greens/EFA), European Parliament

HELT 2025 Call For Papers

For this year’s edition of HELT, we offer the opportunity to individual researcher(s) to present their papers on any of the theme(s) mentioned on the website. This Special Issue is organised in collaboration with the Health & Ageing Law Lab (HALL) of Vrije Universiteit Brussel as part of the 3rd Health, Law, and Technology Symposium (HELT 2025) and European Health and Pharmaceutical Law Review (Lexxion).

An abstract can be sent to Anastasiya Kiseleva (anastasiya.kiseleva@vub.be) not later than March 10, 2025 and the final version of the contribution by 15th June 2025 to mckernan@lexxion.eu.

Below, you can find more information and submission guidelines for paper presentation.

Note: As a maximum, the presentation can take up to 20 minutes. All the costs (travel, accommodation, etc.) to participate and present in the symposium will be borne by the participant. As the symposium is an in-person event, online participation and presentation are not possible.