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Future Food Utrecht – Call 2021
Call to participate in a two-day Sandpit-based workshop
Early life nutritional opportunities for a resilient life
to build a partnership and develop a multidisciplinary research proposal
Closing date, 19 April 2021 12:00 CET.
Is your research related to Early Life Nutrition and Immune resilience? Are you interested in the development of a resilient immune system thereby preventing infections and/or the onset of disease later in life? Would you like to become part of a UU/UMCU-initiated consortium of human and/or animal health researchers that jointly aim to acquire a large research grant to assess the impact of colostrum, milk as well as non-milk derived food and feed on the developing immune system? If so, the FFU sandpit call may be of interest to you.
Future Food Utrecht is pleased to invite you to apply for attending the two-day Sandpit-based workshop on Early Life Nutrition and Immune resilience.
Sandpits are interactive workshops of a few days involving a small, multidisciplinary group of participants. Sandpits are intensive discussion forums where free thinking is encouraged to delve into the problems on the schedule to uncover innovative solutions. The two-day workshop is based on the Sandpit approach and adjusted to the needs of this specific call. The workshop aims to explore and build a partnership for developing a multidisciplinary research proposal. The intended outcome is a collectively written, strong research proposal.
The research topic of the FFU Sandpit-based Workshop
Within the human setting, Early Life Nutrition refers to the nutrition available within the period from conception until the newborn is around 2 years of age (also called “the first 1000 days”). Within this period, the immune system of the fetus/infant is developing and is trained to become resilient and deal with the daily challenges to maintain health and support its growth and development. This developmental process is similar in some animals and different in others, thereby providing an ideal One Health translational approach to benefit humans as well as animals.
A better understanding of the nutritional components that stimulate the development of a resilient immune system, from the second trimester of pregnancy, through lactation and the introduction of weaning foods, can lead to better communication and optimized strategies to achieve a resilient immune system. Conveying a comprehensible message on which nutrition can help to build a resilient immune system is not only beneficial for the early life period but will also help to prevent the onset of later-life diseases. Modulating the resilience of the immune system by early nutritional interventions, even during pregnancy, might also prevent or decrease early complications in the e.g. gut and brain caused by the inflammatory processes in suboptimal health conditions. These insights can subsequently be used to optimize nutritional regimes in early life to support healthy growth and development and identify potential nutritional interventions that can support newborns with (a risk of) suboptimal immune system development.
2 To create a comprehensible message about the importance of Early Life Nutrition in the development of a resilient immune system, we need a multidisciplinary approach where (animal) health care, life sciences, social sciences and humanities join forces. Then our efforts will not only benefit (animal) health care professionals and caregivers, but also society as a whole as the knowledge can also beneficially impact the concomitant disease-related costs in both the human as well as the animal context.
Keywords: Early Life; Nutrition; Immune Resilience; Milk; Weaning; Pregnancy;
Communication; Nutritional Strategy; Development; Growth.
Aim and outcome of the FFU Workshop
Future Food Utrecht wishes to reinforce the research related to Early life Nutrition and Immune resilience at Utrecht University by bringing together scientists from different disciplines. The outcome of this Sandpit-based workshop is to draft one or more project proposals led by UU researchers for the development of full proposals to be submitted to EU or Dutch Funding Agencies. To facilitate this process, RSO staff will be present during the workshop. If the draft proposal is deemed sufficiently effective and innovative to determine how nutrition can achieve a resilient immune system in Early Life and competitive enough for attaining funding, the Board of Future Food Utrecht will award the consortium further financial support to write the full proposal (see below). It is expected that the UU will be expanded at that stage to include stakeholders and other (international) research institutes to complete the consortium for submitting a competitive research proposal.
Funding available
Future Food Utrecht will organize several Sandpit-based calls related to its research themes and will yearly make 150k€ available to support the multidisciplinary teams to develop competitive proposals. Therefore, the project idea designed in this Sandpit-based workshop could roughly receive 50k€ when resulting in competitive research ideas and commitment.
This fund can be used for hiring capacity to aid proposal development and to cover material costs necessary for proposal development.
Applying to participate in the FFU Sandpit-based workshop
Applications are invited from individual researchers who feel that they can contribute to the challenges in this topic. Applicants should complete an expression of interest (EoI) through the Motivation form, which is added below. The size of the group participating in the workshop is essential not only for the interaction but also to make sure that every participant can be a partner in the final proposal. That is why from the received applications, approximately 8-10 participants will be selected to take part in the Sandpit. The Future Food Utrecht Board will make a selection, based on (i) expertise, (ii) motivation, and (iii) track record relevant to the topic of the Sandpit. When you already see opportunities to stronger connect to research topics that are ongoing within your Department or initiatives like Dynamics of Youth, please include those suggestions in your application. Please note that for the track record we are explicitly not only looking for your academic publication or research track record, but also for other skills, particularly: the ability to develop new, groundbreaking research ideas, approach to multidisciplinary problems, ability to work in a team, and knowledge valorization.
3 Within the pool of applicants selected based on these criteria, the panel will bring together a multidisciplinary team with diverse experience, gender and background.
Deadline
The deadline for applications is 19 April 2021 at noon.
Timeline
Activity Date
Call Launched April 2021
Call closes (expressions of interest) 19 April 2021
Participant Selection FFU Board 22 April 2021
Workshop (2 days) participation is compulsory
Day 1 10 June 2021 Day 2 22 June 2021
Funding Announcement: July 2021
THE INTENTION IS TO HOLD PHYSICAL WORKSHOPS. DEPENDING ON THE DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, WE WILL
EVENTUALLY OFFER AN ONLINE ALTERNATIVE.
The next Future Food Utrecht sandpit-based workshops will focus on Circular Agriculture (OPEN now), Nature-inspired food production (expected to open in June/July) and Inclusive transformation of food systems (expected to open in September).
