Governance

HDHL is governed by a Management Board and advised by a Scientific and Stakeholder Advisory Board. Both boards are supported by Chairs and dedicated secretariats.

Organogram of the HDHL governance structure, showing at the top the Management Board and the Advisory Board (made up of two colleges) providing strategic guidance, with the Secretariat positioned below to support and coordinate their work.

Management Board

The Management Board (MB) is the decision board of HDHL. It comprises representatives from every member country within Europe and beyond involved in HDHL. They are responsible for the overall strategy, coordination, supervision, implementation, and progress of HDHL. 

The Steering Committee (SC) deals with daily and urgent issues on behalf of the Management Board. It consists of the HDHL Chair, the HDHL Vice-chair, and three elected members of the Management Board. 

Advisory Board

The Advisory Board advises the HDHL Management Board in all scientifically and technologically relevant issues, and ensures an adequate exchange of information with other political bodies and stakeholders in the field of food, nutrition and health.

The Advisory Board is composed of 2 colleges: one college of scientific experts and one college of international/EU stakeholder organisations.

College of scientific experts

The college of scientific experts consists of 9 top researchers in the field of food, nutrition and health, and is chaired by John Mathers. Members are elected based on their individual research experience, not as representatives of their organisations or country. Their expertise is equally divided among the 3 research areas of the HDHL Strategic Research Agenda (SRA):

  1. Citizens, Diet, and Behaviour
  2. Food for Health
  3. Diet, Health, and Disease 

College of stakeholder organisations

The college of stakeholder organisations consists of 11 representatives from European societies and organisations in the fields of food, nutrition and health, and is chaired by Laura Fernandez Celemin. It should be understood as a communication platform where the voices of various, for HDHL relevant networks, can be raised and heard. Similar as the college of scientific experts, their expertise is distributed among the three HDHL research areas:

  1. Citizens, Diet, and Behavior
  2. Food for Health
  3. Diet, Health, and Disease 

Secretariat

The Secretariat serves as the central body for all HDHL activities including the development and implementation of strategies and action plans. The coordinating secretariat in charge of the day-to-day tasks and support of the Management Board is located at ZonMw (NL). The secretariat of the Advisory Board is located at ILVO (BE).

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