Nutrition research review and Agency response
Thursday 18 March 2010
The Agency welcomes the recommendations made by the independent expert panel that undertook the review of the Agency’s current nutrition research and surveys portfolio, and wishes to thank the Chair, Professor Mike Kelly, and the other panel members for their important contributions.
This review supports the wider review of Agency-commissioned research and its future direction, and is captured in the Strategic Plan 2010-2015 with its overarching strategic objective to improve food safety and the balance of people's diets, to achieve the outcome that consumers understand about safe food and healthy eating, and have the information they need to make informed choices.
The review has also fed into, and is reflected in, the Agency’s Science and Evidence Strategy 2010-2015 which describes the Agency’s strategic priorities for the evidence it needs to effectively support the delivery of its current strategy, measure progress, inform development of our future strategy and support delivery in the long term.
The recommendations will be invaluable in the Agency’s deliberations regarding the future structure, composition and balance of its nutrition research portfolio, to ensure that the portfolio continues to meet ongoing policy needs. Having considered the panel's recommendations, the Agency intends to implement the following:
Informing dietary recommendations
Work in the ‘Informing dietary recommendations’ area will be refocused to better reflect current and emerging diet-related public health priorities of relevance to the UK population.
The Agency will continue to fund and give priority to translational research, that is, testing hypotheses that have been generated through a variety of biological research methods/study types in large-scale dietary interventions (randomised controlled trials) of public health relevance.
Individual programmes (N02: Diet and Cardiovascular Health and N05: Nutritional Status and Function) will be restructured to create one overarching programme focusing on the processes leading to nutrition-related disease.
Work on micronutrient requirements will continue with a focus on the micronutrients of particular public health concern. The current policy of only investigating micronutrient intakes at levels achievable through diet will continue.
Research to develop better quality measures of biological functionality will remain a priority, while recognising that much of this research is beyond the scope of the Agency.
Monitoring
The Agency will continue to prioritise the National Diet and Nutrition series and the Diet and Nutrition Survey of Infants and Young Children, together with the food composition work that underpins these.
Improving food choice
The two existing programmes within the Food Choice area (N09 and N14) will be amalgamated to produce one programme with more flexibility in terms of its remit and scope.
An expert strategic review of the evidence of the influence of environmental, organisational, social and cultural factors on interventions to change eating behaviour has been commissioned.
Research to identify effective ways to deliver dietary interventions to promote behaviour change in different population groups and settings will remain a priority.
Obesity research
The Agency will consider commissioning obesity-related work in support of its overall aims to improve food choice and develop dietary recommendations. This may include dietary and behaviour change interventions to prevent unhealthy weight gain.
Lower priority research topics
In November 2006, the N12 Diet and Colonic Health programme was reviewed by a panel of external experts. The review concluded that the projects commissioned within the programme were appropriate to its remit and were of a high scientific quality. It was noted, however, that achieving the programme's aim to develop surrogate end-points for colorectal cancer that are modified by dietary factors, would take considerable time and commitment. The N12 review panel questioned whether this programme remained central to the Agency’s policy needs and recommended waiting until the projects had reported before commissioning further work. This view was endorsed by the Nutrition Research Review Panel. The policy priorities of the Agency have evolved since the programme’s inception in 2000, and it is now considered more appropriate for this work to be funded by others. Consequently, the Agency will cease funding in the diet and colonic health area.
Visionary/basic research will remain a low priority within the Agency’s nutrition research portfolio.
Descriptive studies, in both biological and social science fields, are unlikely to be commissioned at this time.
While specific descriptive modelling has been identified by the expert panel as not representing the best value for Agency spend, it is good practice to utilise descriptive modelling when designing interventions. Such an approach will continue to be used in the identification and evaluation of effective dietary interventions to promote behaviour change in different populations and settings, which will be the focus of Agency efforts in the future. Developing and describing new models is unlikely to be highly prioritised in research commissioned by the Agency’s nutrition division.
Working with other funders
The Agency will seek to establish and lead a group of key UK nutrition research funders (including government departments and agencies and funding councils) to improve coordination and integration of ongoing nutrition-related activities. Such a group would facilitate collaboration and joint working and would help to ensure that there is a coherent UK research strategy covering all aspects of nutrition policy and advice.
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