UK must invest in the latest nutrition research
The UK must invest more into training the next generation of nutritional researchers, according to a report from the Medical Research Council (MRC).
While more university departments were now offering courses in nutrition, work was focused on applied nutrition such as dietetics, rather than fundamental research or ‘integrative nutrition’, which combined classical nutrition research with cutting-edge work in fields such as mitochondrial biology, claimed the MRC.
“New developments and innovation are needed in core disciplines of nutrition research integrating nutrition and modern biological approaches, and developing novel tools and technologies for robust and sensitive measurements of nutritional exposure and energy expenditure”
It added: “There is a major need for training and career development of clinical and basic nutrition researchers - especially mid-career, between post-doctoral and first substantive academic post - in order to maintain a high-quality research base when the current generation of leading nutrition researchers retire.”
One way of tackling the issue was to develop a “recognisable centre of excellence that is competitive on the world stage”, proposed the MRC. This would serve as a “magnet for first-rate scientists and the training of the next generation of integrative nutrition researchers”
Given the “critical mass of expertise across a range of disciplines relevant to nutrition and energy balance in Cambridge”, it would make sense to base the centre there, said the MRC. “But this would not necessarily require a new physical entity; rather, it would facilitate collaboration between existing groups and allow recognition of the expertise present in nutrition.”
Although the MRC is government-funded, its research priorities are not set by government. In 2007-8, its £579M budget for research supported more than 3,000 researchers in universities and hospitals.
Current priority areas for research include: biomarkers, ageing-related research and global health.
