6 November 2019, 4pm (via email)
UK Nutrition Research Partnership (UK NRP) – Nutrition Hot Topics Workshops
https://mrc.ukri.org/funding/browse/uk-nutrition-research-partnership-uk-nrp-nutrition-hot-topics-workshops/uk-nutrition-research-partnership-uk-nrp-nutrition-hot-topics-workshops/
• Awards will provide up to £10k of funding per workshop. The UK NRP expects to fund up to 8 workshops in total on different topics related to human nutrition
• The workshop must take place before 31 July 2020
• A workshop report should be submitted within 2 months of the event taking place
This call has been developed to accelerate progress by encouraging new thinking on important challenges in the nutrition field.
Focused workshops will enable specific nutrition “hot topics” needing urgent attention to be addressed in an agile and timely manner.
The aim is to support new linkages between different disciplines and to build research capacity by encouraging the formation of new multidisciplinary research teams able to address these challenges, with a view to build a strong pipeline of ideas and collaborative projects that could be competitive for response mode funding in the near future.
Researchers based within the UK are now invited to respond to a UK NRP Call for funds to organise hot topic workshops, each addressing an important multidisciplinary challenge in nutrition research.
Broad hot topic areas have been identified by the UK NRP.
Applicants should either propose a workshop clearly related to one of the identified topics, or may suggest a hot topic of their own.
All workshop topics proposed must be highly relevant to human nutrition.
• Co-leadership (designated as Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator) of each workshop is required, one of which should be an early career researcher (ideally leads should be from two different disciplines)
• Applicants may be the PI or Co-PI on only one application for a Workshop Award
N.B a signed letter of support is required from a senior representative from the PI’s host institution
Aims of the call
The UK NRP Workshop Awards will broaden the research base and increase collaborations by bringing together expertise from within and outside the current nutrition field, and from diverse disciplinary and methodological backgrounds. We are particularly keen to attract the most exciting and transformative workshop ideas which either focus on a novel emerging aspect (of a topic area), or seek new approaches to a known nutrition challenge. Workshops with an innovative format and programme to ensure rich discussion and interaction are particularly welcome.
Among the potential topics identified by the UK NRP are:
• Chronobiology and nutrition
• Microbiome – context specific mechanistic/functional understanding closely linked to human nutrition and physiology
• Frailty (muscle) and nutrition – examples include: muscle as an endocrine organ, recovery and signalling; sarcopenia and mechanisms of cachexia; human phenotyping and nutritional status in older people (including multimorbidities)
• Appetite – examples include: better understanding of the gut-brain axis; mechanisms of anorexia and cachexia, overweight/obesity; translation of science with particular relevance to ageing populations
• Dietary behaviour – behavioural/nutrition science interfaces and how to change dietary behaviour in a sustainable way. May include food choice, portion control, and socioeconomic/cultural aspects.
• Micronutrients – context specific mechanistic/functional understanding closely linked to human nutrition and physiology. Improved understanding of interactions with other nutrients and influencing factors.
• Vulnerable populations and inequalities – to include nutritional drivers and key physiological/behavioural/social and environmental determinants
• Ethnicity and response to diet – biological (e.g. genetics/epigenetics) and behavioural/social/cultural aspects
• Interplay between nutrition and physical activity – at the mechanistic level, but could also be socioeconomic and cultural factors
Applicants are free to suggest an alternative hot topic but it must be related to nutrition and it will be judged on its novelty and importance to the field.
It should be noted that the UK NRP plans to sponsor a larger workshop on Dietary Intake Assessment and so proposals based on this topic should not be submitted to this call.
Please see full details of process and what can be requested at the web link above.