The Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (ISPUP) is leading a national partnership for the creation of a research infrastructure in the areas of food, nutrition and health. The starting point for the development of this Portuguese network takes place on 25 July 2019, with the organisation of a workshop at ISPUP, attended by the entities involved in the design of this infrastructure.
This national research network aims to use the valences of the partner entities to form a community that helps to create public policies on food and health matters. It is also intended that the Portuguese network formalize an application to integrate a European research infrastructure in these areas, initiated by four countries, led by the Netherlands. It includes some countries that have already set up their national research networks.
ISPUP is already part of the European project application, but for Portugal to become a member of the European infrastructure, it must first create a national research network in food and health.
The July 25th workshop helped “partners and stakeholders come to an understanding of what is the best model for the development of the national research network in these specific areas,” explains Duarte Torres and Carla Lopes, the ISPUP researchers involved in the project.
In addition to ISPUP, the project partners are the Faculdade de Ciências da Nutrição e Alimentação da Universidade do Porto (FCNAUP), the Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA), the Instituto Superior de Agronomia, the Escola Superior de Biotecnologia da Universidade Católica Portuguesa and the REQUIMTE (Rede de Química e Tecnologia). All of these institutions have projects or research structures on food and health.
Stakeholders are also involved in the project, which relate in some way to the desired research areas, namely the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), the Direção-Geral da Saúde (DGS), the Autoridade de Segurança Alimentar e Económica (ASAE), the Planning, Policy and General Administration Office of GPP and the Direção-Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária (DGAV).
