Establishing a World Microbiome Observatory

The World Microbiome Partnership (WMP) is undertaking the ambitious challenge of establishing a World Microbiome Observatory, integrating all One Health environments and enabling more coordinated microbiome science. The World Microbiome Observatory would use standardized microbiome profiling to establish reference baselines and track long-term changes in ecosystem health. By monitoring microbiome “drifts” over time, such an Observatory would help assess ecosystem function, resilience, and robustness across human, animal, agricultural, and environmental systems.

Embedded in a One Health framework, this initiative would consist of interconnected domain-specific microbiome sub-observatories, collectively leveraging microbiome science to address major planetary challenges.

Thanks to the engagement of Working Group A ‘Human Microbiome and Public Health Targets’, led by Jeroen Raes, Matt Henn and Robert Benamouzig, the creation of the human domain of the observatory – the ‘Human Microbiome Cohorts Alliance’ – is gaining momentum. After several exchanges, WMP has already received over 50 expressions of interest from diverse human cohort research teams and the Agreement for the Alliance is in its final stage of negotiation.

> You can join the Alliance by expressing your interest here: https://forms.fillout.com/t/bhEcCYvkEUus .

The coordinators hope the Alliance will be able to track population-level microbiome changes, providing evidence-based health recommendations to policymakers, and better characterization of the environmental and contributing to a better understanding of as well as prevention of chronic diseases that have risen steadily for decades.

Beyond human microbiomes, the World Microbiome Observatory would integrate all One Health domains into thematic coalitions. The WMP Working Group F on Environmental Microbiomes and Climate Change, chaired by Emma Rocke, Rob Knight, and Jian Xu is taking up this challenge and is tailoring some specific environmental domains that could be integrated first into the observatory, such as soil microbiomes, with the contribution of some international initiatives, such as the Austrian Cluster of Excellence “Microbiomes drive Planetary Health“.

The High-Level One Health Summit, initiated by French President Emmanuel Macron, will take place in Lyon, France, 6-7 April, where WMP sees a timely opportunity to integrate the role of microbiomes into One Health initiatives and to launch the Human Microbiome Cohorts Alliance.  We anticipate political support during these days, and we will be holding a panel, ‘Microbiomes at the Heart of One Health: From Soil to Plate and Beyond’ to demonstrate the connections between One Health and microbiome science.

> Subscribe to ‘Microbiomes at the Heart of One Health: From Soil to Plate and Beyond’, part of #OneHealthFestival, accompanying One Health Summit here https://wmp-oh-summit2026.symposium.inrae.fr