AGEM is involved in and at the forefront of the Amsterdam UMC-Food for Life initiative. After a successful event in October 2023, it became clear this important theme should become part of our AGEM strategy. This will not only strengthen our visibility and external signature in the nutrition-health-disease domain, but also enhance collaborations within AGEM and with other institutes, with a substantial societal and healthcare impact as a result.

What is the Food for Life initiative?

One thing that we can be sure of, is that food is an integral part of our lives. Amsterdam UMC is formulating an ambitious vision on how to contribute to Food for Life (FFL) through science for society. The FFL initiative aims to create a cross-cutting research line around food that unites all eight Amsterdam UMC research institutes, and covers food as medicine, food as part of care, food for prevention and food for planetary health. The Amsterdam UMC Board of Directors (Raad van Bestuur) have asked Arjen Brussaard and Tessa Roseboom to explore the potential of this initiative and investigate the possibilities for building research and impact collaboration between the universities of Amsterdam and Wageningen.

With this initiative, the forces of the Amsterdam UMC in respect to nutrition research, health and disease can be united strategically, with attention to a healthy planet. This way, we can join in on the important developments in society and healthcare and we can have a valuable impact.

AGEM & Food for Life

Within this bigger picture, how can AGEM contribute from its biological/mechanistic point of view? First and foremost by uniting our efforts, combining our research and collaborating. In order to then create both societal and healthcare impact, we envision the involvement of various external stakeholders and the establishment of public private partnerships to ensure adequate implementation of our joint research findings. The first step towards this goal, creation of a comprehensive overview of projects already initiated on this topic, was taken during our AGEM FFL event.

Figure 1: Schematic overview of the three main AGEM-related Food for Life themes and the six defined sub-themes. The current goal is to make an inventory of all the research that is being done on Food for Life, in hopes to form and strengthen internal and external collaboration. Figure 1: Schematic overview of the three main AGEM-related Food for Life themes and the six defined sub-themes. The current goal is to make an inventory of all the research that is being done on Food for Life, in hopes to form and strengthen internal and external collaboration.

AGEM Food for Life event

On Thursday October 5th, 2023, twenty AGEM researchers came together to discuss their research related to FFL. The aim of the evening was to find thematic connection and synergies within AGEM. Firstly, the attendees informed each other on the existing research through various pitches that could be loosely grouped into three themes: Food for Adults, Food for Children and Food in Hospitals (fig.1). An extensive overview of the current AGEM-related research and more information about each of the pitches and subthemes will be made available as soon as possible on the AGEM website.

Figure 2: The AGEM Food for Life event was held on the top floor of the Volkshotel in Amsterdam.
Figure 2: The AGEM Food for Life event was held on the top floor of the Volkshotel in Amsterdam.

After these presentations, more in depth discussions and networking were facilitated during a walking dinner with delicious bites. Based on the enthusiastic feedback from the participants afterwards, these initial AGEM plans for FFL deserve to be elaborated. Moreover, it seems these types of events are a great way to promote and foster multidisciplinary and interdepartmental research within AGEM.

Figure 3: After the participants pitched their research and had soaked up all the knowledge, the chairs were pushed to the side and discussions could commence.
Figure 3: After the participants pitched their research and had soaked up all the knowledge, the chairs were pushed to the side and discussions could commence.

What is next for AGEM?

How will we follow up on the Amsterdam UMC FFL initiative and this AGEM FFL event? The event made clear that FFL has the potential to be one of the synergizing themes within AGEM, thus we can and should be an important contributor to this initiative. There are already well established synergies and connections between researchers within AGEM, as well as with other institutes. For now, AGEM is reaching out to the various groups that presented their FFL research capabilities, to work towards preparing strong propositions that are in line with the initiative of the Board of Directors. By combining our forces early, we will be ready for any future external grant calls.

Innovation grant

To already encourage collaborative and innovative research now, the AGEM innovation grant of 2024 will be geared towards a project that involves FFL. The call is published on the website and a new registration form is ready and waiting for you to fill it in.

If you were not present at the event, but you are working on a FFL-related topic, or you know of/are someone outside of AGEM that would be willing to collaborate, please let us know via email.