In 2022, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funded six new Hubs as part of the Open Innovation Research Club (OIRC) on diet and health. The hubs address shared barriers to innovation across the food and drink sector and aim to reduce the huge impact poor diet has on public health.
From maximising the nutritional value of foods to better understanding what influences dietary choices and the relationship between food and health, these innovation hubs bring together leaders from academia, industry and wider stakeholders.
Each Innovation Hub will build cross-sector collaborative networks to improve the UK’s capacity and capability and deliver world-class innovation around diet and health by supporting strategic, collaborative research and development between businesses and academic researchers together with other users of research, policymakers and wider stakeholders.
The INFORM Hub is an important component of the OIRC initiative. It will connect academia, industry and policymakers to collaboratively pursue shared research priorities in the development of functional foods (foods that contain health-giving bioactives) to improve human health via their impacts on gut microbes.
Visit the OIRC website for further information, current events, and opportunities available from each of the six hubs