Independent Dialogue
Geographical focus:
No borders
Discussion topic outcome
7. Co-creation and co-design of research • Research and innovation that enables us to sustainably deliver affordable, acceptable and nutritious meals every day for everyone is a massive challenge and a range of academic disciplines, the private sectors and other sectors must to come together to deliver this. • It is important nutritionists are involved the co-creation/co-design of research projects that are focussed on food • Stakeholders and end-users of research such as industry, farmers, consumers and policymakers must be involved in the co-creation/co-design of research projects and
... Read moretraining to ensure viable products, uptake and impact of the research. For example, co-designing research with farmers who would be growing the new varieties of nutritionally dense food/crops, because if it takes extra efforts for farmers to grow those varieties without much return on investment then the whole research stays at laboratory level. Just as we have patient participation representatives in the design of human studies, we must involve consumers in food research, there is no point producing food products that consumers will not purchase or eat. This will provide some indication of the economic sustainability of interventions and the research impact in the medium to long-term (e.g. Environmental taxes, acceleration the breeding to marketing cycle) • The co-design of research with stakeholders, end users and civil society has been central in the UKRI Transforming UK Food Systems for Healthy People and a Healthy Environment Programme which has received positive feedback in terms of balancing quality of research with impact focushttps://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/research/foodsystems-spf/ • It is also important to have more active engagement (monitoring/support) during projects and follow-up after completion to help with the dissemination of findings and deliver impact. This has been very successful in the UKRI-BBSRC supported Diet and Health Research Industry Club (DRINC) which was first established in 2008 to support pre-competitive research that investigates the link between diet and health. The research has enabled the food and drink industry to develop products that deliver enhanced health benefits for consumers. https://bbsrc.ukri.org/innovation/sharing-challenges/drinc/ Actions: • UN to encourage research projects and programmes to be co-created and co-designed by a range of academic disciplines and with a wide range of stakeholders and end users of research such as industry, farmers, consumers and policymakers to ensure greater outcomes, uptake and impact of the research Success: • co-designing research and training across disciplines and stakeholders will deliver coherent evidence to enable concerted action from policy, business and civil society. Read less
Action Track(s): 1, 2, 3, 4
Keywords: Data & Evidence, Environment and Climate, Finance, Governance, Innovation, Policy