Understanding how food and beverages deliver improved nutrition across the lifecourse

As people age the ability of their body to function can decline. This is most obvious for their muscles and bones and cognition but metabolism and immunity decline as well as do a lot of other body structures and functions. Because this decline in function worsens older people's health and well-being, we call the changes unhealthy ageing. Instead of this, we want to promote healthy ageing, because that means older people stay well. Diet is really important in affecting how fast our body's systems decline as we age. In addition, we now know that things that happen to people when they are young, even before they are born or when they are babies, not only affect their health when they are infants or children, but can carry over into later life. In fact, early life events can influence how fast we show the functional decline of ageing. Again, diet turns out to be really important. The diet of a woman when she is pregnant or breastfeeding and the diet of babies and children not only has immediate effects but has a long-lasting effect. So our early diet sets us up for what happens later on. We need to know more about the influence of a person's diet throughout their whole life on how well they grow, develop and function and then how quickly their function declines as they age. Once we know more about this, we can take steps to make sure that people eat the best foods and meals to ensure heathy ageing. To do this we need to study the effect of meals, individual foods and drinks, and specific nutrients and other components of foods on the body right across the lifecourse. To enable that to happen, scientists who understand how nutrition affects the body have to work more closely with industry who produce the foods that people eat. Ultimately, we need to make these foods more healthy. To do that, we need to carry out research so we know what is healthy at different stages of the lifecourse and also to know whether different people actually respond better (or worse) to different foods and food components. We plan to set up a series of partnerships linking researchers from universities with people from industry to foster better working together so that they can carry out the required research. Our ultimate aim is to create what we call an "Innovation Hub" that enables collaborative research involving academic researchers and industry that will in the end result in industry providing more healthful foods to the consumer, so promoting health across the lifecourse including in older age. To do this each year for five years we will distribute funds for research to researcher-industry partnerships. In some cases, industry will also need to put money into the research. So that the partnerships can be created, we will host workshops where researchers and industry can network and discuss their ideas. Once the funds are awarded for research, we will make sure that the research goes as well as it can. Some of the funds we distribute will be for researchers from universities to spend time in industry or for people from industry to spend time with a researcher at a university. These funds will be very appealing to researchers at an early stage in their career. They will really benefit from exchanging knowledge, getting new skills and having new work-place experiences. These things could be of huge benefit to their career. In this way, we hope to create a better skilled, more knowledgeable and engaged work force to carry out important research that will both give industry the opportunity to have more healthy products and enable the population to be more healthy as they age.

As people age they can show loss of homeostasis of physiological systems and of resilience to challenge. Age-related functional decline has a major impact on the musculoskeletal, cognitive, metabolic and immune systems, amongst others. Unhealthy ageing has societal and economic costs. Poor diet is a contributor to age-related functional decline. However, early life events can have long-term consequences including on age-related functional decline. In order to promote healthy ageing, we need to know more about the influence of "diet" (dietary patterns, meals, foods, nutrients and other food components) throughout the lifecourse on growth, development, acquisition of function and functional decline. We need to understand how factors like age, sex and ethnicity modify the diet-physiological function axis and the mechanisms behind this. Stronger collaboration between academia and industry is needed for this. Our Innovation Hub will enable collaborative research involving academia and industry that will ultimately result in industry providing more healthful foods to the consumer, so promoting health across the lifecourse including in older age. Annually for five years we will distribute funds for research to academia-industry partnerships. In some cases, industry will need to match the funding. Linked to our funding calls, we will host workshops so researchers and industry can network, discuss their ideas and form partnerships. Once the funds are awarded, we will monitor progress. Some of the funds will be for mobility of individuals between universities and industry. These funds will be especially appealing to early career researchers who will benefit from knowledge exchange, skills acquisition and new work-place experiences. We hope to create a better skilled, more knowledgeable and engaged work force to carry out important research that will give industry the opportunity to produce more healthful products and enable the population to be more healthy as they age.