New EU horizons for food research

The EU commission has outlined the six societal challenges for Research and Innovation to be tackled in the future EU Framework Research Programme HORIZONS 2020. The first two ‘pillars’ will encompass the food-value-chain, expected to improve health, healthy food, sustainable food production and waste and environmental issues.

Pierre Mathy, Head of Unit in the Directorate General for Research and Innovation, said: "The hollistic, interdisciplinary approaches will be key for future research funding by the EU." The OPEN DAYS event in Brussels was attended by 70 food researchers, economists, sports scientists and food cluster managers.

Two projects demonstrated this holistic approach during the event - the DIOGENES study researching diets, genes and obesity demonstrated that integrated concepts were needed in order to contribute sustainably to health with mass intervention. The project FOODSECURE was exploring the global dimension of food and nutrition security, especially in light of scarce resources and competition in agriculture and environment.

The AFRESH website contains all the presentations from the event – a project looking to deal with innovative concepts of healthy food and physical activity. It is one member of the EU Food Cluster Initiative, a network of 14 food and activity EU projects – mostly stemming from Eastern European countries.

Click here to see the AFRESH website.

Published: Thursday, 27th October 2011 by Ellen Haggan