EURO DISH

Study on the need for food and health research infrastructures in Europe

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Europe is facing major challenges in promoting health and reducing the disease burden of age- and diet-related NCDs by means of lifestyle, food and nutrition. Research collaboration, innovation, and capacity building are essential to efficiently benefit from the – mainly public – research resources. To realise this, EU-wide Research Infrastructures (RIs) are essential. The aim of EURO-DISH is to provide advanced and feasible recommendations on the needs for RIs to ESFRI and other stakeholders. EURO-DISH will focus on needs for integration of existing and the development of new food and health RIs that are relevant for innovations in mechanistic research and public health nutrition strategies across Europe. Building upon available projects and mappings, we will systematically map existing RIs and needs for integration of existing and new RIs, and supporting governance structures throughout Europe. Food and health research comprises multiple disciplines and a broad research area. To assure a balanced attention for the area as a whole, the mapping will be organised around the ‘DISH’ model: ‘Determinants, Intake, Status, and Health’, which represents four key building blocks of the research area as well as different stages of RI development. To go beyond existing mappings, we will synthesize the results by integrating the needs for hard & soft RIs as well as governance; moreover as this may identify newly emerging gaps and needs, it will define larger entities of required RIs. We will develop a conceptual design and roadmap for implementing the most important RIs. It will include links with basic and human science infrastructures, as well as integration and collaboration with industry, third countries and feasibility. Two case studies on RIs, identified as highly relevant by the JPI HDHL for 2012-2015, will enrich the project by designing and testing of pilot RIs that feed the overall conceptual design and roadmap, which will be aligned with on-going activities.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

The high burden of diet-related non-communicable diseases amongst Europeans can be directly attributed to diet and lifestyle. An EU initiative is helping to boost research and enhance knowledge for public health nutrition schemes across Europe.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The EU is improving the health of citizens by promoting healthier lifestyles, food and nutrition. To better deal with health threats, challenges and risk factors, research is needed into how to design more effective strategies. However, food and health research is particularly challenging because it includes many fields and is a broad research area, moreover research in this field seems scattered and research capacity and comparable high quality data are still limited for various European countries.

Thanks to EU funding, the 'Study on the need for food and health research infrastructures in Europe' (http://www.eurodish.eu (EURODISH)) project is evaluating the existing requirements for food and health research infrastructures (RIs) like facilities, resources and services that support European scientists in performing leading research. The overall goal is to provide recommendations to the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), policymakers and researchers.

Two of the three project phases were completed during the first reporting period. The first phase involved the mapping of existing RIs in the relevant fields of research, such as dietary behaviour factors, and food and nutrient intake, nutritional status and health outcomes. Gaps, needs and opportunities were identified for different stages of RI development, as well as for the governance concerns of various stakeholders.

The second phase integrated the needs and gaps for major food and health RIs and looked at how these may be governed. Emergent needs and gaps were also identified.

In the final phase, the team members are creating a roadmap to implement the most important RIs. This strategic plan will propose recommendations on needs and best practices and further steps that are required to build a European Food and Health RI. This plan will be presented to policy makers and to public and private researchers on May 15th at EXPO Milano, Italy.

EURODISH outcomes support world class research on food, nutrition and health by connecting education, innovation and research. The project will help policy makers and industry to increase the impact of food and health research and ultimately to improve the health of all Europeans.