Pre-announcement: a transnational call on the prevention of undernutrition in older adults
While undernutrition in older adults correlates with a general decline in health conditions, with an increased number (and duration) of hospital stays, and with a higher rate of mortality, the prevention of undernutrition in older adults constitutes an important challenge for our European ageing population. The scope of the present call is to fund dedicated, top-class transnational and transdisciplinary research consortia focusing on the prevention of undernutrition in older adults through a proper balance between diet and physical activity, and/or the development of new food products
Through this call, the ERA-NET ERA-HDHL will contribute to create or reinforce the collaboration between research partners coming from different countries and different fields to promote research linking nutrition and health. Both public research partners (such as universities, research institutions, and hospitals), private companies and associations will be welcome to join the present call.
Topic of the call
The present call aims to improve the prevention of undernutrition in older persons. Proposals should focus on one or both of the following topic:
- Improved understanding of how the balance between diet and physical activity can prevent undernutrition. The studies should focus on the underlying biological mechanisms of the bioavailability, assimilation and metabolism of the macro- and/or micronutrients in food or food products and show how physical activity could modify these processes.
- Development of innovative food products. The developed product should be based on new research on metabolism, on macro- and/or micronutrient bioavailability and absorption in older adults.
The call excludes research on over-nutrition and/or obesity in older adults, research exclusively focused on microbiome, research on treatments for established undernutrition, research focused on nutrients if not associated with a real strategy to prevent undernutrition and the development of nutritional supplements in pill form. Animal models and in vitro work can be performed only if the model system used and the analyses performed are relevant for the topic of human undernutrition.
The consortium should be transdisciplinary and involve 3 to 6 partners eligible for funding from at least three countries participating to the call (Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Spain, and United Kingdom) . No more than two eligible partners from the same country will be accepted within the same consortium. Two additional partners could also join the consortium if they can fund their own work without requesting money to the funders. ANR will only fund the French partners of the selected projects. The maximum funding allowed is 250 000 euros (or 300 000 euros if the French partner is also the coordinator of the project).
Selected projects will be funded for a period of up to three years.
In agreement with the ANR policy, funded researchers should respect the guidelines of the Nagoya protocol and consider open access publication of their results.
Submitted projects will be evaluated in one phase only (closure on April 7th, 2020) followed by a rebuttal that will take place from the 10th to the 20th of July 2020.
