Open data & lab sharing for a digital future

Good data and good labs are key to good nutrition research. Accessible data is even as important. And sharing those data has become much easier in the age of digitalisation.

Last modified: 17.10.2019

 An international network of leading scientists in the area of food, nutrition and health has been working intensively over the past years to make the ambition of an easy to access one stop shopping platform supported by the latest digital tools and technologies come true and thereby delivering a unique and future proof resource available to scientist, policy makers and experts in the field of food, nutrition and health. 

Collection of dietary intake data is one example of where sharing of resources and insights in digital tools and technologies has opened up new avenues. Traditionally collection of dietary data relied on labor intensive methods requiring inputs from the individual studied making such studies costly and time consuming. The emergence of digital technologies has sparked a new interest in methods and approaches that can be used for automated collection and processing of data on food intake. New sensor technologies, smarter interfaces and progress in artificial intelligence research seem to be boosting the field and bringing the field forward. Digital solutions for better healthcare is a trending topic at the regional, national and the EU-level.

The European Strategic Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) is currently addressing some of the challenges specifically related to health and food, which is a topic in the 2020 ESFRI roadmap. One of the ideas that might provide infrastructure to facilitate such work is the Food, Nutrition and Health Research Infrastructure (FNHRI) suggested by an EU-funded mapping study and needs assessment (EuroDISH), followed by the RICHFIELDS design study. The FNHRI consortium is being further developed in 2019 and aims to improve access to nutritional research data, install a consumer data platform, and strengthen the laboratory facilities by collaboration between research groups and labs working in the Food Nutrition and Health domain. The slides from the can be found thorug the links below.

  1. Why nutrition science benefits from a Food Nutrition and Health Research Infrastructure? Pieter van ‘t Veer, Wageningen University, The Netherlands & Bent Egberg Mikkelsen, Aalborg University, Denmark 
  2. Donate Your Data – building a consumer lab facility for sourcing realtime consumer data to map household food purchase. Bent Egberg Mikkelsen, Michal Kristofik, Vitalijs Cehs & Henning Olesen, Aalborg University, Denmark.
  3. Making existing and new methods for dietary assessment to the research community – lessons learnt from the Nutritools infrastructure. Speaker: Janet Cade, Professor, Leeds University, UK