NUTRIMIND: Improving Mental Health and Nutrition in Europe

Mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and stress affect millions of people across Europe and are increasingly recognised as being closely linked to diet, nutrition, social inequalities and broader lifestyle factors. These conditions often start early in life and can continue into older age, with a significant impact not only on individuals and families but also on society through lost productivity and healthcare costs. As a result, there is growing interest in prevention strategies that can improve mental wellbeing throughout life, particularly the role of nutrition as a promising modifiable risk factor in the prevention and management of common mental disorders.

The NUTRIMIND project aims to explore how nutrition, dietary choices, the gut microbiome and lifestyle factors interact with mental health across the life course. The project examines these relationships from childhood through older adulthood using data from multiple European population cohorts. Its goal is to improve understanding of these interactions by combining existing data from large-scale cohort analyses, dietary and biomarker data, microbiome and multi-omics approaches, AI-supported modelling and citizen science tools. Through this integrated approach, the project will:

• strengthen the evidence base for prevention-focused approaches to mental health
• support development of practical tools, recommendations and policy guidance

The NUTRIMIND consortium brings together researchers, health experts, data scientists, citizen scientists and stakeholder engagement specialists from16 organisations across Europe.

EUFIC coordinates NUTRIMIND and contributes its expertise in science communication and stakeholder engagement. As coordinator, EUFIC supports collaboration among project partners, communication with the European Commission and the development of a Community of Practice involving citizens, researchers, healthcare professionals, policymakers and other actors, helping to ensure that NUTRIMIND’s outputs are relevant, inclusive and accessible.

In addition, EUFIC contributes to the project’s dissemination, communication and exploitation activities and leads the design of a practical campaign toolkit to support public communication campaigns.

Giacomo Sini, Collaborative Projects Manager, giacomo.sini@eufic.org

Sofia Mendes, Collaborative Projects Manager, sofia.mendes@eufic.org

Vittoria Ruggiero, Collaborative Projects Manager, vittoria.ruggiero@eufic.org

Follow us at:

• BlueSky: #NUTRIMIND / @scifoodhealth.bsky.social

• LinkedIn: #NUTRIMIND / @SciFoodHealth

• NUTRIMIND website – coming soon (end of August)