Innovation Hub for Improving Health and Nutrition through Biofortification (HERB Hub)

联合王国对食品、健康和营养作出了坚定的承诺。在生物强化领域尤其如此，越来越多的食品制造商被鼓励为其顾客生产健康和安全的食品。有一系列改善营养的方法，其中包括将传统方法和改进营养质量的新方法结合起来，例如植物育种、垂直农业、基因编辑和发酵。生物强化的发展必须与政府对新食品安全的规定保持一致。因此，有必要利用英国在工业和学术界用于提高食品质量的技术方面的广泛专业知识，并将其与食品结构知识以及健康和营养方面的兴趣联系起来。为了发挥作用，这必须在消费者新的食物偏好和对可持续饮食的新偏好的背景下进行。作为一个科学创新和合作研究的网络，通过生物强化改善健康和营养中心将通过其来自食品工业、政府和非政府机构的代表社区，以及健康和营养专业人士和科学家来解决这些复杂的挑战。为了建立这个功能社区，Hub将逐步发展。最初，通过听取在生物强化方面具有影响力的各种领导人的意见，该中心将确定现有食品网络、工业、学术界、政府和非政府机构以及健康和营养专业人员的前景。通过鼓励来自这一领域的成员，包括跨越多个学科的大量专家，我们将能够扩大生物强化中心，从而产生一个多样化但包容的协作创新和知识交流社区。通过利用思想领袖的专业知识和利用社区的经验和观点，该中心将确定现有和新的生物强化和营养研究挑战，这些挑战可以转化为商业部门。在此申请的短暂准备期内收到了大量的支持信，这表明学术界和工业界都愿意合作。该中心将利用社区的跨学科人才来推动合作项目。这些项目将通过范围界定研讨会和社区会议来制定，这将有助于改进生物强化学科中的一些关键挑战。合作团队将能够通过商业互动券、可行性奖和灵活移动奖资助的项目来追求这些研究重点。后者将允许在“创新文化”下进行行业安置和人才发展，以利用来自枢纽成员组织的见解，数据和技术。因此，该中心将通过发展可直接应用于食品工业的研究，生产营养密度更高、对健康和福祉有明显好处的食品，从而加强健康、营养和生物强化社区。学术界将了解工业的驱动因素和思想的成功转变，工业界将获得学术研究的最新发展，政策制定者将能够在了解这些方法的优点和潜在缺点方面与这两个群体进行互动。通过其成员的共同努力，该中心将在英国发展生物强化领域，帮助支持许多新兴的创新型食品中小企业。该中心将高度可见，并有积极的社交媒体存在，以支持中心与政策制定者和其他资助者的接触。中心的研究和培训成果也将更广泛和公开地分享，以进一步支持生物强化对健康的影响。

The UK has a strong commitment to food, health and nutrition. This is particularly the case in the field of biofortification where food manufacturers are increasingly encouraged to produce foods that are healthy and safe for their customers. There are a range of ways in which nutrition can be improved and these include a combination of traditional and novel approaches to improving nutrient quality, e.g. plant breeding, vertical farming, gene editing and fermentation. Developments in biofortification must align with government regulations on the safety of new foods. It is therefore essential to take advantage of the wide range of expertise within the UK on techniques used to improve food quality across industry and academia and link it with knowledge of food structure and interests in health and nutrition. To be effective this must be set in the context of new food preferences of consumers, and emerging preferences for sustainable diets. As a network for scientific innovation and collaborative research the Hub for Improving Health and Nutrition through Biofortification will address these complex challenges through its community of representatives from the food industry, government and non- government agencies, alongside health and nutrition professionals and scientists. To establish this functional community, the Hub will progress stepwise. Initially, by taking views from a diverse range of leaders with impact in biofortification, the Hub will identify the landscape of existing food networks, industry, academia, government and non-government agencies, and health and nutrition professionals. By encouraging membership from this landscape, which encompasses a critical mass of experts that span multiple disciplines, we will be able to expand the Biofortification Hub and thereby generate a diverse but inclusive collaborative innovation and knowledge exchange community. By utilising the expertise from thought leaders and harnessing the experience and perspectives of the community, the Hub will identify existing and new biofortification and nutrition research challenges that can be translated to the commercial sector. The willingness of both academia and industry to collaborate is evident by the large number of letters of support that were received within the short preparation period of this application.The Hub will harness the interdisciplinary talents of the community to drive collaborative projects. The projects will be developed through scoping workshops and community meetings, that help refine some of the key challenges within the biofortification discipline. Collaborative teams will be able to pursue these research priorities with programmes funded by Business Interaction Vouchers, Feasibility Awards, and Flexible Mobility Awards. The latter will allow for industry placements and talent development, under a 'culture of innovation' to draw upon the insights, data, and technologies from across the Hub members' organisations.The Hub will thus enhance the health, nutrition and biofortification community by developing research with direct application to the food industry, generating food with greater nutrient density with clear benefits for health and well-being. Academics will learn the drivers for industry and successful transition of ideas, industry will gain access to recent developments in academic research, and policy makers will be able to interact with both communities in terms of understanding the advantages and potential disadvantages of such approaches. Collectively, through the collaborative efforts of its members the Hub will develop the biofortification field in the UK, helping support many of the new emerging innovative food-based SMEs. The Hub will be highly visible and have an active social media presence to support Hub engagement with policy makers and other funders. Hub research and training outcomes will also be shared more broadly and publicly to further support the health impact of biofortification.