163 applications received in the 1st call for Food4Health Expressions of Interest

The first Food4Health call was open from 29 May to 26 June.

An overwhelming 163 Expressions of Interest applications were submitted by 48 partners who are ready to start work in 2019 on the first two projects of Food4Health, a collaboration between EIT Health and EIT Food to help bring innovations for healthy eating to the market.

Some 14 partners from EIT Food, 29 from EIT Health, and five who are partners of both networks, submitted the applications to start work on the two Food4Health projects:

• STOP MetSyn – Using Indicators to Influence Consumer Behaviour and Prevent Pre-Disease Through Food and Lifestyle-related Interventions: Metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) represents a clustering of different metabolic abnormalities, present in approximately 25% of all adults with increased prevalence in advanced ages. Having MetSyn increases the risk of developing other serious diseases, such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, but it can be controlled with food and lifestyle interventions. This project will help to develop marketable solutions to address this challenge.
• Muscle-Cancer – Tackling Muscle Mass Loss in Cancer Patients Through Nutrition Solutions and Lifestyle Interventions: Involuntary body weight loss in cancer patients is prevalent, and evidence shows that having low or losing muscle mass has a negative impact on the prognosis and survival rate of cancer patients. This project seeks marketable solutions to promote physical or nutritional interventions that can help prevent muscle wasting.

Applications were received from 23 universities, 15 institutes/hospitals, eight companies, one city and one NGO. The evaluation of these applications was conducted by an external expert panel based on three criteria: Competence (25%), Expertise/Experience (25%) and Motivation (50%).

The top-ranked applicants for each task were placed on a shortlist and several partners from each list have been invited to join the project consortia. The Food4Health team is currently contacting these partners to confirm their participation in the projects.

Fourteen tasks involved in executing STOP MetSyn and Muscle-Cancer will begin in September 2019, and the partners who are chosen will start work on those tasks.

Food4Health will continue in 2020 and the 2nd call for Expressions of Interest for the tasks that start next year will open October 2019.