Award details

Translational Innovation Hub for Population Health using Food and Nutrition approaches to enhance Positive Physiology (The RIPEN Hub)

Reference	BB/X010880/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Gary Frost
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Susan Lanham-New
Institution	Imperial College London
Department	Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	303,416
Status	Current
Type	Research Grant
Start date	14/11/2022
End date	13/11/2027
Duration	60 months

Abstract

Although the UK has a vibrant academic history in understanding the relationship between food, nutrition and health, there is a recognized strategic gap in translation. The RIPEN Hub will bring together Academia and Industry in partnership to fill this gap. The thought Leadership for the Hub will come from a collaboration between, Imperial College London and the University of Surrey, together with an international food and beverage Manufacturer, namely, PepsiCo as well as ten Leading UK Academic Institutions and a large number of large and small Food Industry companies, Charities, Civil Societies and Government. Our collective, fundamental aim is to develop a world-class Innovation Hub, which will ultimately provide the environment and leadership to enable Industry-Academic collaborations to work in synergy to develop innovative solutions and translational pathways related to uncovering the complex relationships between food components and human physiology. We will achieve this through a development of short-term projects aimed at developing in-depth partnerships and an Education Program that will inform and develop Partnerships. The Hub will set five priority themes each year through a two-day Hackathon, which will be open to all Hub Membership. The five themes will be those that are important to the areas of Science, Industry and Society. These five priority themes will inform the topics for the Impact Account and the Education Programme for that year. We will put in a supportive system to ensure the success of the Impact Account projects and will facilitate mentorship to for award holders to make next steps bid for funding. This may be to UKRI of through industrial funding

Summary

Our Innovation Hub Application under Theme 1 "Understanding the Interplay between Food Components and Human Physiology" comprises world-class Leaders from academia and industry, who together have crafted a bespoke Innovation Hub. The representation is led by two key Academic Organisations with outstanding reputations in food and nutrition research: namely, Imperial College London (ICL) and the University of Surrey (UoS) together with an international food and beverage manufacturer PepsiCo. The overall Hub currently spans a further ten Academic Institutions as well as key members of the food industry and SMEs, Civil Societies, Charities, Government and a diverse External Advisory Board, such that we already have a Hub of over 100 members and we would look to grow this exponentially. Our world-class Innovation Hub, which will ultimately provide the environment and thought-leadership to enable collaborations to work in synergy to develop innovative solutions and translational pathways related to uncovering the complex relationships between food components and human physiology. The Hub's ultimate aim is to support the development of healthier diets, thereby enhancing the Health of the Nation. A concomitant aim will be to create development pathways that will contribute to reducing the risk of obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the UK population. This ambition will be achieved through the Impact Account Projects and the Education Programme. Every year, the Hub will set five priority areas which are same priority areas to Science, Industry and Society. We will use hackathon methodology to develop these five areas. This annual priority setting will be open to all Hub members. These five priority settings will drive the Hubs activity for the year. 1. The five priority areas will be used to make an annual call for the Impact Account Projects. These will be advertised nationally, and the competition open to all that meet the BBSRC institutional criteria. From the applications, those scoring the highest, up to the limit of the Impact Account will be funded. Each project will be supported by regular contact with the Hub Management. 2. The Education Programme will run each year an annual meeting, academic industrial partner speed networking, online update meeting and early career scientist meeting. The topic area will be the five priority area for the Hub in the given year The enthusiasm for the Hub can be seen through the initial membership of our ten Academic Partners and numerous large and small Industries as well as Charities, Civil Societies and Government. Finally, the Hub will put in place methods to enhance the academic industrial partnership by offering next step support to the Impact Funded Project. This will include Mentorship for Follow-on-Funding.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Diet and Health Innovation Hub [2022]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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