NSF Convergence Accelerator Track J: Network Of User-engaged Researchers building Interdisciplinary Scientific infrastructures for Healthy food (NOURISH)

在美国的低收入社区，食品体系中充斥着超加工、超美味的食物--工业化生产的、廉价、方便、容易养成习惯的“快餐”。与此同时，新鲜的食物很难找到。这些“食物沼泽”的激增是一个全国性的挑战，它正在推动肥胖和慢性病的双重流行，以及严重的环境危害和严重的健康不平等。国家医学科学院、美国农业部食品和国家科学基金会已经认识到应对这一国家挑战的迫切需要。构建健康食品跨学科科学基础设施的用户参与研究人员网络(Nutiish)将开发技术解决方案，帮助人们将食物沼泽转变为健康食品系统。超加工和超美味食品约占美国食品供应的三分之二，让大多数美国人每天都能遇到它们。但食物沼泽让他们的居民除了这些不健康的产品之外几乎没有食物选择。为了解决食物沼泽的问题，我们必须为这些社区中负责任的商业企业家提供数据和信息，以开发和营销健康、可持续的食品。这包括关于他们市场的消费者在味道、便利性和可负担性方面想要什么的信息，以及如何以负担得起的价格采购新鲜农产品并开办小企业的信息。将高科技和先进数据引入手机应用程序和在线仪表盘，将使当地食品企业家能够发展生产、准备和销售自然具有吸引力的食品的企业，而不是用于制造超级美味食品的工业化生产过程。已经存在一个大型的、全国性的社区非营利性食品正义组织网络，寻求这种转变。还有一个由慈善家、投资者和社会企业公司组成的充满活力的社区，他们希望在资源不足的社区投资和支持健康食品企业。营养系统将这些群体与科学家聚集在一起，创新适用于每个人的技术解决方案。营养系统将连接当地食品企业家和投资者，为他们配备一个高科技系统，加速他们改造食物沼泽的努力。该系统的功能将包括：国家食品沼泽地图，关于当地消费者食品偏好和负担得起的定价的众包数据，获得新鲜食品供应链的机会，启动小型食品企业的资源，以及在全国范围内建立和联系健康食品利益相关者的社交网络功能。NoURISH提出了一种基于股权研究的新的科学观点，指出当前食品体系中的严重市场失灵是食品沼泽存在及其根除的关键因素。Nutiish团队扩展了现有的社区-学术伙伴关系，汇集了社会不平等、公共卫生营养、食品化学、食品仓库、社区参与、土著和种族平等、食品正义、农业、区域规划、商业、成瘾和数据科学/AI方面的专业知识。该团队将通过社区参与开发一个动态的、可重复使用的、基于地点的网络基础设施的原型。Nutiish系统将使用一个不同的信息集成平台，将公开可用的数据和众包信息结合在一起。它将拥有一个可更新的、基于本体的知识图谱，为用户提供有关生鲜食品区域供应链的信息和有关消费者偏好的当地市场数据。该系统将包括特定的推荐算法和可视化分析工具，允许最终用户探索不同推荐解决方案的有效性。一系列三个研讨会将收集来自食品司法和投资界利益相关者的见解和反馈，探索不同的使用案例。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Low-income communities in the US have food systems saturated with ultraprocessed, hyperpalatable foods– industrially produced “fast foods” that are cheap, convenient, and habit-forming. Meanwhile, fresh food is hard to find. The proliferation of these “food swamps” is a national challenge that is driving twin epidemics of obesity and chronic disease, as well as significant environmental harms and profound health inequities. The urgent need to address this national challenge has been recognized by the National Academy of Medicine, the US Food Department of Agriculture, and the National Science Foundation. The Network Of User-engaged Researchers building Interdisciplinary Scientific infrastructures for Healthy food (NOURISH) will develop technical solutions that help people transform food swamps into healthy food systems.Ultraprocessed and hyperpalatable foods comprise about two-thirds of the US food supply, leaving most Americans to encounter them daily. But food swamps leave their residents with few food options other than these unhealthy products. To solve the problem of food swamps, we must equip responsible business entrepreneurs situated within these communities with data and information for developing and marketing healthy, sustainable foods. This includes information on what consumers in their markets want in terms of taste, convenience, and affordability, as well as information on how to source fresh produce affordably and open a small business.Bringing high technology and advanced data to a cell phone application and online dashboard, NOURISH will enable local food entrepreneurs to grow businesses that produce, prepare, and market food that is naturally appealing, without the industrial production processes used to make hyperpalatable foods. There already exists a large, national network of community-based nonprofit food justice groups seeking this transformation. There is also a vibrant community of philanthropists, investors and social enterprise firms who want to invest in, and support, healthy food businesses in under-resourced communities. NOURISH brings these groups together with scientists to innovate technical solutions that work for everybody.The NOURISH system will connect local food entrepreneurs and investors, equipping them with a high-technology system that accelerates their efforts to transform food swamps. Features of the system will include:● a national food swamp map,● crowdsourced data on local consumer food preferences and affordable pricing,● access to supply chains for fresh foods,● resources for launching a small food business, and● a social networking feature that builds and connects stakeholders in healthy food nationwide.NOURISH advances a novel scientific perspective that is grounded in equity research, one that points to profound market failures in our current food system as a key factor in both the existence of food swamps and their eradication. The NOURISH team expands upon an existing community-academic partnership, bringing together expertise in social inequities, public health nutrition, food chemistry, foodsheds, community engagement, indigenous and racial equity, food justice, agriculture, regional planning, business, addiction, and data science/AI.This team will prototype a dynamic, reusable, place-based cyberinfrastructure developed via community engagement. The NOURISH system will combine publicly available data and crowdsourced information using a heterogeneous information integration platform. It will have an updatable, ontology-based knowledge graph that provides users with information on regional supply chains in fresh foods and local market data on consumers preferences. The system will include specific recommendation algorithms and visual analytics tools that allow end users to explore the efficacy of different recommended solutions. A series of three workshops will gather insights and feedback from stakeholders in the food justice and investment communities, exploring different use cases.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.