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

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