The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)
The Scientific Advisory Board has been established to advice the JPI HDHL in all scientifically and technologically relevant issues.
The Scientific Advisory Board consists of 15 scientists, top researchers in the field of Nutrition and Health and is chaired by professor Edith Feskens. The members are elected based on their individual research experience, not as a representative of their organisation The expertise of the SAB is equally divided between the following three areas of the SRA – five scientists for each research area:
- Citizens, Diet and Behaviour
- Food for Health
- Diet, Health and Disease
The MB requests advice from its advisory boards on their strategic and implementation plans as well as on communication and dissemination of its results. Please click here for the Terms of Reference of the Scientific Advisory Board of JPI HDHL.
Members of the Scientific Advisory Board

Name: Janas Harrington
Organisation: School of Public Health, University College Cork
Title-Position: Senior Lecturer
Country: Ireland
Expertise: Public Health Nutrition, Food Policy Research, Food Environments
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO), Member and Co-Chair, Public Health Task Force
- Member of the Association for the Study of Obesity Ireland
- Member International Society for Behaviour, Nutrition and Physical Activity
- Member, Irish Department of Health, Obesity Action Plan Implementation Group Healthy Eating Subgroup
- Member of Safefood All Island Obesity Action Forum
- Chair Cork Food Policy Council
- Chair Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) National Health and Wellbeing Committee

Name: Aida Turrini
Organisation: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, research Centre Food and Nutrition
Title-Position: Executive researcher
Country: Italy
Expertise: Individual dietary survey, nutritional database system, epidemiology, research infrastructure, food system
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- Coordinator of the 4th nationwide dietary survey
- Editorial board member of The Scientific World Journal; Review Editor Frontiers in Nutrition and Sustainable Diet, Guest Associate Editor Frontiers in Methodology, Guest Editor for Nutrients - Special Issue "Dietary Assessment in Human Health and Disease"
- Strategic Working Group on Food System (SCAR)
- Food Chain Analysis Network (OECD)
- Network on Food Consumption Data (EFSA)

Name: Katarina Bälter
Organisation: Mälardalen University
Title-Position: Professor of Public Health
Country: Sweden
Expertise: Nutritional epidemiology, cancer epidemiology, diet-related greenhouse emissions, sustainable diet, physical activity, citizen science.
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- Member of the board of research at School of Health, Care and Social Welfare at Mälardalen University and served as its vice research leader during the academic hear of 2019-2020.
- Member of the working group for the National Network for Nutritional epidemiology in Sweden, NEON.
- Spokesperson and expert on nutrition for the Swedish Cancer foundation.
- Member of the Swedish Society for Epidemiologists, SVEP.
- Member of the Association of Members of the Swedish Parliament and Researchers, RIFO.

Name: Wendy Van Lippevelde
Organisation: Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Marking, Innovation and Organisation, Research Unit Consumer behaviour
Title-Position: Assistant Professor in Transformative Consumer Research
Country: Belgium
Expertise: Health Promotion, Public Health Nutrition, Consumer Behaviour, health inequalities, healthy and sustainable diets, vulnerable families and children
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- Founder and current Advisor of the Network of Early career researchers and Students of ISBNPA
- Member of the Flemish Food coalition responsible for the Flemish Food Strategy
- Member of the stakeholder advisory board of the Joint Programme Initiative “A healthy diet for a healthy life” (JPI HDHL), representing ISBNPA (2019-2022)
- (Early career) Member-at-large of the International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA) (2015-2021)

Name: Paula Varela Tomasco
Organisation 1: Nofima
Title-Position: Senior Researcher, Sensory & Consumer Science
Organisation 2: Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Title-Position: Professor, Sensory & Consumer Science
Country: Norway
Expertise: Consumer behaviour, methodological aspects of consumer research particularly with special populations (children, elderly, vulnerable populations). How to support consumer transition to healthier and more sustainable diets at the light of food-related societal issues
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- Chair of the European Sensory Society (E3S) 2021-2022.
- Associate editor of Food Quality and Preference; Member of the Editorial Boards of Food Research International and Current Opinion in Food Science.
- Participation in scientific advisory boards as consumer expert: ETP Food For Life (Europe), Institute Paul Bocuse Research (France), Leatherhead Research Institute (UK).
- Expert evaluator for the EU commission and various national funding agencies.
- Coordinator of EU projects with focus on healthy eating.

Name: Daniele Del Rio
Organisation: University of Parma
Title-Position: Head of the School of Advanced Studies on Food and Nutrition, Professor of Human Nutrition
Country: Italy
Expertise: Dietary phytochemicals and human health. Bioavailability, metabolism and bioactivity of plant polyphenols. Molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of plant foods in human disease prevention.
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- Scientific Director, The Need for Nutrition Education/Innovation Programme (NNEdPro), Global Centre for Nutrition and Health, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cambridge, UK
- Editor in Chief, International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition
- Visiting Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, Ulster University
- Management Committee Member,BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health Journal
- Founding Fellow and Trustee – EUFoDiN - European Foundation for Dietetics and Nutrition
- Member of the Federation of European Nutrition Societies (FENS) working group (WGs) on “External communication and public trust”

Name: Catherine Stanton
Organisation: Teagasc and APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork
Title-Position: Senior Principal Research Officer and Research Professor
Country: Ireland
Expertise: Nutrition, food and health, dairy foods, probiotics, gut microbiota
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- Member (and Rapporteur) of Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Evaluation of Health and Nutritional Properties of Probiotics in Food including Powder Milk with Live Lactic Acid Bacteria, Córdoba, Argentina, 1-4 October 2001
- Member (and Rapporteur) of Working Group convened by FAO/WHO to develop Guidelines for the Evaluation of Probiotics in Food, London, Ontario, Canada, April 30 and May 1, 2002, and /IDF/ISO (2004-2006)
- Member (and Facilitator) of European Technology Platform (ETP) WG Food Quality & Manufacturing (2005-2007)
- Member of Utrecht Group (Dairy Nutrition) Dutch Dairy Foundation since 1997
- Member IDF Standing Committee Nutrition and Health
- Member ILSI Expert Group on Beneficial Aspects of Food Processing (2008-2010)
- Member Agropolis Foundation Science Council, France (2011-2013)
- Member of Scientific Advisory Panel Member for the MBIE programme "Accelerated Evolution: a step change in food fermentation", AgResearch New Zealand 2018-date)

Name: Peter Wilde
Organisation: Quadram Institute Bioscience
Title-Position: Professor and Group Leader
Country: UK
Expertise: Food structure and digestion, in vitro digestion methods, link between processing, food structure, nutrient bioaccessibility and health impact
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry Special Interest Group on Food
- Editorial Board member for Food Hydrocolloids
- Sat on advisory and review panels for BBSRC, Royal Society of Chemistry, EU, DAFM (Ireland) and the Tertiary Education Commission (New Zealand)

Name: Martinus (Tiny) van Boekel
Organisation: Wageningen University & Research
Title-Position: Emeritus professor in Food Science
Country: the Netherlands
Expertise: Food quality, food security, food safety, food processing, kinetic modeling
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- Food safety expert Food Bank, the Netherlands
- Chairman Scientific Advisory Board Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Finland
- visiting professor, BioTeC+ - Bioprocess Technology and Control
- Department of Chemical Engineering, KU Leuven Technology Campus Gent, Belgium

Name: Mark Bücking
Organisation: Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME
Title-Position: Prof. Dr., Head of Department Environmental & Food Analysis & Managing Director of the Fraunhofer Food Chain Management Alliance & Associate Professor Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Country: Germany
Expertise: Fate of bioactive compounds like food nutrients, flavours, residues & contaminants during food processing and digestion, Analytical chemistry incl. fast detection & human sensory analysi, Food Chain Management.
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- Chairman of the Food-Processing Initiative, Germany
- Member of BfR (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment) Committee for Contaminants in the Food Chain

Name: Dirk Haller
Organisation: Technical University of Munich
Title-Position: Full Professor and Chair of Nutrition and Immunology, Director of the Institute for Food & Health (ZIEL)
Country: Germany
Expertise:
- Inflammatory bowel diseases and colorectal cancer
- Microbe-host interactions in gnotobiotic mouse models
- Microbiome analysis of human populations and patients
- Metabolic regulation of intestinal epithelial cell homeostasis
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- Coordinator the DFG Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1371 – Microbiome Signatures
- Coordinator of the DFG Priority Program (SPP) 1656 – Intestinal Microbiota
- Member of the DFG Senate Commission on Food Safety (SKLM)
- ERC Panel Head, Infection and Immunity, Consolidator
- ICREA Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies Evaluator Committee
- Associate Editor Mucosal Immunology and Journal of Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- Board Member of the German Society of Nutrition (DGE)

Name: Christophe Matthys
Organisation
- Nutrition & Obesity Unit, Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology, Department of Chronic diseases, Metabolism and Ageing, KU Leuven (University of Leuven)
- Clinical Nutrition, Department of Endocrinology, UZ Leuven (University Hospitals Leuven)
Title-Position: Associate Professor & Scientific Coordinator Clinical Nutrition
Country: Belgium
Expertise:
- Clinical nutrition
- Obesity and obesity-related diseases
- Diet & lifestyle interventions in the context of primary and secondary prevention as well as treatment option of chronic diseases
- Health/nutrition based interventions at population and patient level
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- Board Member of the Belgian Nutrition Society
- Board Member of the Flemish Society of Clinical Nutrition
- Co-Chair Task Force on Dietary Intake and Exposure (ILSI Europe)
- Member Task Force on Nutrient Intake Optimisation (ILSI Europe)
- Member of the working group on Food-Based Dietary Guidelines of the Belgian Superior Health Council
- Board Member KU Leuven LFoRCe (Leuven Food Science and Nutrition Research Centre)
- Associate Editor of Clinical Nutrition ESPEN
- Associate Editor of Frontiers in Nutrition
- Associate Editor of Frontiers in Nutrition
- Editor in Chief of Food Science & Law

Name: Ellen Blaak
Organisation: Maastricht University Medical Centre+, The Netherlands
Title-Position: Professor in Human Biology
Country: the Netherlands
Expertise: Obesity, Insulin resistance, Nutrition and Integrative Metabolism, Gut microbiome, Adipose tissue Biology, Dietary and Lifestyle intervention
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- Member Dutch Nutrition Council, committee Nutrition
- Scientific advisor ILSI Europe’s Carbohydrate Task Force
- Projectleader in the public private partnerships TiFN Food and Nutrition and Carbohydrate competence Centre
- Chief specialty editor of Frontiers in Nutrition, Nutrition and Metabolism
- Committee European Research Council starting grants evaluation

Name: John Mathers
Organisation: Newcastle University, Human Nutrition Research Centre
Country: UK
Expertise:
- Human nutrition and health
- Nutrition and ageing
- Personalised nutrition
- Nutrition and epigenetics
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- Chair, Rank Prize Funds Nutrition Committee
- Board of Trustees, British Nutrition Foundation
- Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes
- Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellowship Panel
- Editor-in-Chief, British Journal of Nutrition

Name: Karsten Köhler
Organisation: Technical University of Munich
Title-Position: Assistant Professor of Exercise, Nutrition and Health
Country: Germany
Expertise:
Other activities (e.g., membership of other advisory boards)
- German Nutrition Society (DGE), Sports Nutrition Expert Panel
- Associate Editor, Frontiers in Nutrition and Frontiers in Sports and Active Living
