STAR | Start Healthy - Stay Healthy | Aligning Public and Planetary Health Through Precision Plant-Based Dietary Solutions across the Life-course

The global population is living longer but not aging healthier. By 2025, 1.2 billion people globally will be aged over 60 years. Dementia and mental health disorders are two of the greatest causes of disability worldwide. In the UK, 1 in 14 people aged over 65 years and 1 in 6 of those over 80 years have dementia. Mental health disorders are ubiquitous and 1 in 6 adults are likely to experience mental health difficulties. Data from NHS surveying children and adolescents showed that 1 in 6 had a probable mental health problem. Preserving cognitive function, delaying the onset of dementia and preserving mental health are critical public-health (PH) issues to minimise in order to reduce healthcare costs, patient disability, institutionalisation, and mortality. In recognition of the importance of these health issues, the UK government has included dementia and mental health as priority alongside cancer, aging and respiratory diseases (Life Sciences Vision: Build Back Better).
Diet is the most modifiable lifestyle factor in reducing the burden of diseases of aging (heart disease, stroke, cancer, dementia) and important for preventing the development of related risk factors (hypertension, poor immune health, mental health, and cognitive decline). Moving our diets towards more plant-based dietary (PBDs) alternatives is also gaining traction as a healthier and more sustainable solution to the strain on global supply chains caused by the increased cost of food coupled with an aging population.
To this end, we propose the STAR Hub - Start Healthy-Stay Healthy: Aligning Public and Planetary Health Through Precision Plant-Based Dietary Solutions across the Life-course. Led by the Universities of Surrey, Ulster, Newcastle, and Reading, the Hub brings together at inception national leaders in Nutrition & Health from 12 other UK Universities, 21 Food Industry partners, ranging from UK SMEs to global Large Businesses, end-users and wider stakeholders in the food and drink sector. Together we will tackle this challenge and work towards producing new, sustainable - environmentally friendly -, safe and affordable PBD products that aim to reduce the burden of cognitive decline, dementia and mental health disorders in the population, one of the greatest nutrition and health challenges of our time.
Our proposal specifically aligns with Theme 5: Understanding how food and beverages can deliver improved nutrition across the life-course, but links to all the strategic themes of this call. Our overall aim is to provide a better understanding of how food, and the nutrients it contains, can improve metabolic, biological, and physiological processes, and thus generate robust evidence to support novel and innovative dietary solutions that can translate to better mental and cognitive health of individuals throughout life (pregnancy, lactation, childhood, middle and older age).

We will broker new partnerships of academia with businesses and co-design new projects to:

(1) Provide robust evidence to industry on the role of specific food components in cognitive and mental health across the lifespan;
(2) Highlight opportunities for UK-based industry to exploit this evidence through further R&D, ultimately producing new innovative PB dietary products;
(3) To target and tailor these products to specific life stages to improve and maintain cognitive/mental health across the life-course.

The participants of the Hub have complementary expertise with a track record of successful academic-industry partnerships and the leadership to address one of the important nutrition challenges of our time and generate research outcomes and impacts to inform UK policy and develop future leaders in the food sector. The STAR Hub meets with the scope and vision of the call, to help bridge the gap between bioscience research and translation, and strengthen the diet and health community by building capacity and capability in industry-relevant areas.

A major challenge facing public and planetary health is ensuring the provision and (bio)availability of sustainable and affordable nutritious foods across the life-course. Moving towards more plant-based (PB) alternatives is gaining traction as a healthier, more sustainable solution to combat an aging population with increasing prevalence of obesity, poor mental and declining cognitive health across all ages.
To tackle this challenge we will create a UK-wide, world-leading innovation Hub, the STAR (Start Healthy | Stay Healthy) Hub, that will serve as a platform for thought leadership and partnerships between academic and industry members. Led by the University of Surrey, in close collaboration with Universities of Reading, Newcastle and Ulster, at inception brings together the strategic partnership of 12 other UK Universities, 21 SME and Large Businesses, end-users and wider stakeholders in the food and drink sector. The STAR Hub will broker and support these activities through distribution of Business Innovation Vouchers , Flexible Mobility Awards and enable translation/commercialisation activity through Feasibility Awards. Tripartite (industry/academia/3rd sector) Networking Events such as Industry Innovation Fora will stimulate cooperation, innovation and provide cross-sector, interdisciplinary training of early career researchers to become future leaders in the UK food sector.
Our aims are to develop a portfolio of case studies that: (1) provide robust evidence to industry on the role of specific food components in cognitive and mental health across the lifespan, focusing on plant protein sources, polyphenols, fibre and key micronutrients (vitamin B12, D, iron); and (2) highlight opportunities for UK-based industry to exploit this evidence through further R&D to ultimately produce new innovative PB products, services and systems that are targeted and tailored to specific life stages to improve and maintain cognitive/mental health across the life-course.