STANCE4HEALTH - Smart Technologies for personAlised Nutrition and Consumer Engagement
Tobacco use, physical inactivity, harmful use of alcohol and unhealthy diets are modern time factors that have led to an increase in diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. These so-called chronic diseases or non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are responsible for nearly 41 million deaths per year. They have major impacts on personal and public health, well-being and the economy.
A healthy diet adapted to the needs of each person has been shown to have the potential to reduce the risk of developing NCDs and/or controlling them. The gut is the gateway to our health and its habitants have a tremendous effect on our well-being. Balanced nutrition based on the individual needs of the person and its gut microbiota is an important factor to reduce the risk of NCDs in various ways.
As such, the Stance4Health project sets out to empower consumers to choose a healthy diet by providing personalised diets and food products based on individual needs through a Smart Personalised Nutrition (SPN) service in the form of a smartphone app developed in the context of the project: the i-Diet.
The i-Diet app will provide personalised nutrition advice based on the individual’s need for nutrients - based on their age, weight, gender, physical activity and microbiota composition from stool sample analysis - and an algorithm that predicts the effects of foods on the gut microbiota. This will beneficially modify the gut microbiota composition and help users improve their overall health. For an in-depth look at the app please check our factsheet here.
The base of the i-Diet app is an extensive food composition database with over 2.000 different foods from several countries and more than 800 nutrients and bioactive compounds. Personalised foods and nutritional supplements will be created to further support the development of a health-promoting gut microbiota. To investigate the everyday use of the personalised diet concept, a European-wide study will shed light on how consumers view this approach and what factors might influence its uptake. Ultimately, the effectiveness of the i-Diet app and the personalised foods and supplements will be tested in intervention trials with 800 adults and children in Greece and Spain.
Stance4Health is a project funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 programme. Led by the University of Granada, Stance4Health brings together 19 entities from 8 European countries (Spain, Germany, Denmark, Romania, Italy, Greece, Belgium, UK), such as non-government organisations, research hospitals and technological centres, as well as industry partners from the fields of food production, diagnostics, and software development. From 2018 to 2023, these partners worked together to achieve the project’s ambitious goal of reducing the risk of NCDs and engaging consumers in a healthier lifestyle.
In Stance4Health, EUFIC has contributed to consumer studies and the communication and dissemination of the project and its results. We have developed several infographics that provide an easy-to-understand overview of the project and the approach of a personalised diet (see here), as well as content and posts for social media outlets and other platforms to promote the project. To further support the communication and dissemination of the project outcomes to relevant stakeholders and audiences, EUFIC will organise a final conference in Madrid in the first half of 2023.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 816303.
EUFIC supports the communication and dissemination activities of the project and is in close collaboration with the project partners. EUFIC is accountable for several tasks in the area of communication and dissemination as well as contributing to tasks in the area of consumer sciences. These tasks include:
Developing a communication and dissemination plan for all partners to follow.
Communicating & disseminating project results to different audiences via articles, infographics, and newsletters as well as social media content.
Infographic on personalised nutrition (full infographic here)Supporting the partners in events and organising the project’s main conference summarising key results, recommendations and impacts.
CHANCE and DISH cluster webinars with sister projects (2022)
Infographic on the Stance4Health project (full infographic here)Supporting the creation of the food and recipe database.
Supporting consumer research activities such as identifying consumer groups that could potentially be interested in personalized nutrition solutions, and defining the factors that influence consumers’ long-term sustainability of healthy diets and the use of personalized nutrition apps.
Project annual meeting in Athens, September 2022.
For further information, visit stance4health.com.
- Stephan Kampshoff, Collaborative Projects - Manager
- Camila Massri, Research Manager
- Twitter: #Stance4Health / @Stance4Health