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:

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

Janas Harrington

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

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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
Aida Turrini

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

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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)
Katarina Bälter

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.

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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.
Wendy Van Lippevelde

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

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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)
Paula Varela-Tomasco

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

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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.
Daniele Del Rio

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.

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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”
Catherine Stanton

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

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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)
Peter Wilde

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

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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)
Martinus (Tiny) van Boekel

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

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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
Mark Bücking

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
Dirk Haller

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

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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)
Christophe Matthys

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

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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
Ellen Blaak

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

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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
John Mathers

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

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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
Karsten Köhler

Name: Karsten Köhler

Organisation: Technical University of Munich

Title-Position: Assistant Professor of Exercise, Nutrition and Health

Country: Germany

Expertise:

  • Integration of Exercise and Nutrition for Health and Performance
  • Energy Balance Regulation
  • Ingestive Behavior and Compensatory Eating
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    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
    SAB Secretariat

    Institution: DLR

    Domain: Project Management Agency (DLR)

    Contact: Kristina Foterek and Ann Siehoff

    WU Logo
    This project has received funding from the European Union’s
    H2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement n.696300

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