Research Programme on Nutrition, Food and Health
The Research Programme on Nutrition, Foods and Health (ELVIRA) will support novel high-quality and innovative research that in long run makes it easy for consumers to make healthy and safe food choices.
The multidisciplinary research programme covers almost the whole food chain from natural or agricultural products to processing and products in food industry, and their safety and health impacts as well as various issues related to consumer behaviour.
The underlying theme is health: how good health and well-being can be created and maintained with good nutrition; how tasteful foods supporting health-promoting nutrition can be developed and made better available; how consumers can be guided to choose wisely from the large food selection; and how this food selection can meet all the safety requirements.
The objective is:
- to create new knowledge aiming at significant societal and economical impacts, in addition to scientific impacts;
- to establish new collaborative networks across disciplinary boundaries and within and among research institutions;
- to reinforce cooperation and knowledge transfer between scientific community, enterprises and public authorities;
- to promote mobility of researchers;
- to support the balanced composition of research teams, and especially increase the proportion of postdoctoral researchers on the teams.
The research programme includes the following theme areas:
- Consumer behaviour, lifespan and health
- Nutrition, genetic factors and metabolism
- Food, immunity, intestinal microbes and health
- Food-related risks and food safety
- Food processing and health
Other objectives are described in more detail in the programme memorandum.
The research programme is coordinated by the Academy of Finland. The programme is funded by the Academy of Finland, Tekes and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The Board of the Academy of Finland has reserved seven million euros for the programme for years 2007-2010.
The background, objectives and theme areas of the research programme are described in more detail in the programme memorandum.