A new Horizon Europe-funded research initiative called NUTRIMIND launched in early June to investigate how nutrition, dietary choices, the gut microbiome, and lifestyle factors interact with mental health across Europe. The four-year project brings together researchers, health experts, data scientists, citizen scientists, and stakeholder engagement specialists from multiple European countries to examine these relationships from childhood through older adulthood using data from several population cohorts.
NUTRIMIND is coordinated by the European Food Information Council (EUFIC) and includes 16 organisations with expertise in nutrition science, mental health, microbiome research, artificial intelligence, citizen science, public health, food data, and behavioural sciences. The consortium aims to improve understanding of the interactions between diet and mental health by combining existing data from large-scale cohort analyses with dietary and biomarker information as well as microbiome and multi-omics approaches. AI-supported modelling and citizen engagement activities will also be used.
The project places a strong emphasis on stakeholder engagement through a Community of Practice that will involve citizens, researchers, healthcare professionals, and policymakers. This approach is intended to ensure that project outputs are relevant and accessible.
"Whilst growing evidence points to connections between nutrition, the gut microbiome and mental health, important knowledge gaps remain," said Giacomo Sini, NUTRIMIND project coordinator. "NUTRIMIND will bring together large-scale European data, advanced analytical approaches and citizen engagement to better understand these relationships and support future evidence-based strategies for prevention and public health."
The official kick-off meeting for NUTRIMIND took place in Wageningen in the Netherlands on June 2-4 with a three-day programme of scientific workshops attended by partners from Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, Austria, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Serbia, and the United Kingdom. EUFIC will coordinate collaboration among partners as well as communication efforts throughout the project's duration.
