It is beyond any doubt that environmental heat affects tremendously people’s physiological functioning and, in turn, their psychological, social and cultural well being. Classic heat illness and death are major public health issues during exposure to heat stress, particularly for infants, individuals with cardiovascular and respiratory disease and the elderly. The current proposal addresses several mechanisms that may explain the sequence of events leading to heat stroke and death and will improve the existing preventive strategies designed to mitigate heat-induced morbidity and mortality. The objective of the ICARUS joint exchange programme is to foster the development of a multi-national centre of excellence for environmental physiology through balanced exchanges of research staff between eminent European-based research entities and an internationally-renowned research centre based in a third country. The beneficiaries include the Institute Jozef Stefan (IJS) in Slovenia, the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in The Netherlands, and the Centre for Research and Technology Thessaly (CRT) in Greece. The partner is the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa. In this light, ICARUS fits perfectly within the scope of IRSES which aims in establishing long-term research cooperations through coordinated joint programmes of balanced research staff exchanges in thematic areas that are relevant to the European population. Moreover, the participants’ experience and specialisation in environmental physiology and particularly in research related to environmental heat exposure as well as their extensive infrastructures available will provide the level of quality required to transform the ICARUS joint exchange programme into a multi-national centre of excellence for environmental physiology.