Dissemination and Technology transfer (Module 5)
Overview on aims and the objectives in the 5th project year (June 2009 - May 2010)
- To enhance structured interaction with stakeholder groups, and to prepare continuation of the HEALTHGRAIN network after completion of the project, by involving the Industrial Platform, the Nutrition Information Network and the Consumer Communication Panel
- To execute a programme for technology transfer with Workshops and Training activities
- To disseminate knowledge by presentations and publications, in international, national and regional events and journals
- To support implementation of the HEALTHGRAIN IPR policy, with the IPR Committee
- To maintain a highly functional, interactive and sustainable website
- To design a follow-up website for continuation after the HEALTHGRAIN project → Healthgrain Forum
Work performed and the main achievements
Interaction with stakeholders groups and continuation of the HEALTHGAIN network
The HEALTHGRAIN Forum was established as the Association for continuation of HEALTHGRAIN related activities. In its Constitutive Meeting - Lund, 6 May 2010 43 Organisations linked to HEALTHGRAIN have joined as members: 19 industries, 8 universities, 13 research organisations and 3 organisations focusing on communication to consumers. For research organisations the research network of the Forum is of key importance. In addition, industry members highly appreciated the HEALTHGRAIN activities resulting in agreement on the definition of whole grain and the plans of the Forum for getting approval of the definition starting in Europe. The Forum will be active anyway till the end of 2012. Well before this date decisions about continuation will be taken.
Technology transfer, Workshops and training
Three workshops were organised for the Industrial Platform, two of them with participation of NIN and CCP:
- June 10-11, 2009, La Grande Motte: Extra Workshop for IP, NIN, HG Participants. What could make cereal foods healthy Bioavailability and physiological impact of nutrients and non-nutrients. Following the trend set in Madrid, this Workshop was attended by IP, NIN, CCP and all HG participants. Attendance: 112
- November 16-17, 2009, Frankfurt: Workshop, linked to FI exhibition Cereal foods and obesity – new insights
and tools for product development, in co-operation with DIOGenes. Attendance: 58. - Both workshops were followed by animated discussing sessions on the HEALTHGRAIN definition of whole
grain. - May 5, 2010, Lund: Final Workshop - Feedback and new perspectives. Attendance: 45. IP, NIN, CCP.
In addition to these meetings for stakeholders HEALTHGRAIN organised a range of open meetings (see below).
Training activities in this final year included:
- The Seminar and Analytical Training Course ‘Measurement of Dietary Fibre and Small Bioactive Components of Cereals’, Warsaw/ Radzików 23-27 Nov. 2009. All methods used by HEALTHGRAIN in analysing the diversity screen grain samples were discussed and a number of them were trained in practice. All participants (32 for theory, with 20 of them for practice) received a copy of the just published HEALTHGRAIN Methods Manual
- 2 Young Cereal Scientists & Technologist Workshops, hosted by UniTus (1-3/8/2009) and BUTE (25-27/5/2010)
Transfer of NIR Calibrations
The work on NIR calibration in grain and flour of components analysed in the HG Diversity screen showed good calibrations for arabinoxylans, alkylresorcinols (markers of whole grain) and sterols, as well as a good ranking between samples for beta-glucans. BUTE is offering these determinations as service to interested parties. Discussions with NIR instrument suppliers for transfer have started and are continued in the HEALTHGRAIN Forum.
Dissemination of knowledge
Dissemination of knowledge culminated in the Open HEALTHGRAIN Conference, Lund 5-7 May 2010 (attendance: 250) with a comprehensive overview of project results in 30 presentations and 81 posters. Dissemination in Lund included the distribution - as hard copies and on the website of:
- the comprehensive Conference Book (194 pages)
- 10 press releases with project results - with a lot of publicity in food and nutrition related electronic newsletters
- the final project leaflet, with results presented for non-specialist and organizations communicating to consumers
Workshops and symposia with publicly accessible presentation of project results:
- HEALTHGRAIN Symposium on cereal grain fibres in the 4th Intl’ Dietary Fibre Conference, Vienna 1-3/7/2009
- HEALTHGRAIN Symposium in the AACC International 2009 Annual Meeting, Baltimore, USA 13-16/9/2009
- HEALTHGRAIN - LYCOCARD Workshop: Results of 2 EU projects to improve the nutritional quality of pasta-based meals, Bologna-Fiere, 26/4/2010, Workshop at the PastaTrend International Exhibition
- Joint HEALTHGRAIN – Bioexploit Dissemination Workshop on Wheat Improvement in connection with EUCARPIA Cereal Section Meeting, Cambridge, UK, 6/4/2010
National and regional activities included:
- Press conference with ten French journalists in the 4th HG Annual Meeting, La Grande Motte. The group also visited INRA Montpellier. This resulted in a number of papers in the French press and a TV broadcast on M6
- Bi-annual Themadag Granen (Theme day Cereal Grains). 17/3/2010, Wageningen, Netherlands, organised by PGZP. Prof. Brouns, HG partner Unimaas) presented an overview on cereals and health, including HG results
- Workshop “Le nuove frontiere degli sfarinati integrali per una sana alimentazione quoditiana” (The new frontiers of whole grain flours for a daily healthy diet) organised by Tecnoalimenti, with ICC and Barilla or at SIAB, the 9th International Techno-Bake Exhibition - Verona, 24/ 5/2010
The list of publications includes now over 100 peer reviewed papers. An overview of presentations and publications is presented elsewhere in this report.
IPR issues:
BOKU took care of the smooth running of the web based system for submitting draft publications for IPR check.
Websites:
The project website www.healthgrain.org was updated as usual. After the end of the project the website will be completed with the final reports. All project data will remain accessible after the project at www.healthgrain.eu, hosted by ICC, with the same login possibilities for project partners, IP, NIN and CCP members.
For the Open HEALTHGRAIN Conference (Lund) ICC built the website http://lund2010.healthgrain.org/. This site will remain accessible, as is the case with the HEALTHGRAN project website.
ICC prepared also the website of the HEALTHGRAIN Forum: www.healthgrain.org.
TNO initiated activities for the website www.cerealsandhealth.com designed by Caledonian Science Press (SME partner, LYCOCARD EU project) aiming at (similar to www.tomatoandhealth.com) communicating in ways attractive to persons/ consumers of different age groups about whole grain and similar products and health.. The pilot version of www.cerealsandhealth.com will be a starting point for further possible actions of the HG Forum.
Workshops and other interactions with stakeholder groups
Two workshops were organised for the Industrial Platform, with participation of NIN and CCP as well:
The Open Discussion Forum on the Definition of Whole Grain organised by HEALTHGRAIN and ICC Paris, following the Workshop was highly appreciated by IP, NIN and CCP.
As a follow-up HEALTHGRAIN organised with AACC International 24 March 2009 a session in the Whole Grain Global Summit (Newcastle, UK) resulting in HEALTHGRAIN being seen, also outside Europe, as an authoritative voice in this debate. The HG website is providing background information on this item as well as on other issues related to cereal grain products and health, including developments in the implementation of Regulation EC 1924/2006 on Nutrition and Health Claims, and on the definition of dietary fibre.
Dissemination
The amount of scientific publications is steadily growing.
The special issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2008, 56), with 11 publications of results of the HEALTHGRAIN Diversity Screen received much interest, from HG stakeholders and many others. The publications are describing the results of analysis of health relevant compounds – various types of dietary fibre and a range of phytochemicals – of 150 wheat varieties and 50 varieties of other cereal grains (rye, oats, barley) grown on one site in Hungary. 200 reprints of this issue were purchased, and distributed to IP, NIN, CCP and some other key stakeholders.
HEALTHGRAIN has also participated in arrangement and support of four international congresses during the reporting period.
The impact of HEALTHGRAIN’s research was also shown by Rewards, assigned by independent panels, for young HEALTHGRAIN researchers: the Exxentia Award for Phytotherapy and Nutrition for Nuria Mateo and the 2 Kraft Awards for the best cereal projects in the Global Whole Grain Summit for Ruth Price and Martijn Noort.
Training
9 Applications for financial support for exchange of students and younger staff at laboratories of HG partners were approved. The realised secondments contributed significantly to the output of HEALTHGRAIN, since almost all were aiming at executing work included in the HG Deliverables at the laboratory/institute where this work could be done most efficiently. The opening for this exchange programme for the Industrial Platform, announced at the start of this project year did not result in applications.
Training courses/activities
HEALTHGRAIN contributed and co- organised, with the MoniQA Network of Excellence, to 2 training courses focussing on analytical methods and food safety:
The courses were attended by 30, respectively 20 students/young scientists. The venues were chosen for ensuring low cost lodging, and for enhancing participation of attendants of candidate member countries – as was aimed at the start of the project.
In order to bridge the gap between research and innovation, HEALTHGRAIN
has created networks of stakeholders and is executing a range of
activities aiming at:
- raising awareness of the cereal products – health area
- creating interest in opportunities for innovations and
- training scientists in relevant disciplines and techniques
- The objectives in the third project year were:
- to enhance structured interaction with stakeholder groups, by involving the Industrial Platform and the Nutrition Information Network and establishing the Consumer Communication Panel
- to execute a programme for technology transfer with Workshops and Training courses
- to disseminate knowledge by presentations and publications, in international, national and regional events and journals, and by providing information to the public at large
- to support implementation of the HEALTHGRAIN IPR policy, with the IPR Committee
- to develop training activities
Interactions with stakeholders and technology transfer
Industrial Platform Workshops:
2 Workshops were organised, attended by 50-60 persons, for the larger
part Industrial Platform members:
- 1. 4th Industrial Platform Workshop June 6-7 2007, Budapest. ‘Optimising Quality and Safety of Cereal Products, in cooperation with Integrated project EUROPREVALL’, The Workshop contributed to requirement outlined in the Description of Work (DoW 6.1.7 Raising Public participation and awareness) to address safety issues related to the use of whole grain products. One way to minimise the risk of contaminants related to the use of whole grain based flour is to use instead ‘Healthflour’ without the outermost layers of grain kernels, as is being studied in WP3.2
- 2. 5th Industrial Platform Workshop October 29-30, 2007 London. ‘Cereal grains - bioactivity and potential for personalised nutrition’ jointly with Network of Excellence NuGO).
Nutrition Information Network members and HG Module 4 members discussed
in the 2nd NIN meeting, June 7, 2007 Budapest the impact of the Claims
Regulation (EC1924/2006) and planned nutrition studies with human
subjects in HEALTHGRAIN.
For the Consumer Communication Panel (CCP) no meeting was held this
project year. CCP members were – together with NIN and IP members -
invited for the 3rd Annual meeting and the IP (+NIN and CCP) Workshop,
just after the project year.
Web based communication:
Web based communication with IP, NIN and CCP members included updates
about the developments in the implementation of EC Regulation 1924/2006,
and the definition of dietary fibre and wholegrain.
Plan for transfer of results to breeders:
A Plan – Deliverable 5.1.11 – was developed for transfer of results to
breeders, encompassing, in addition to the Deliverables listed in the
DoW, a range of activities, including:
- Publication of the results of the Diversity screen work (WP 2.1 – 11 publications) in one issue of the Journal of Agric. and Food Chem. (expected: end of 2008)
- Publication of analytical methods for health relevant components in cereal grains in the HEALTHGRAIN method book (2009)
- A training course on analytical methods (2009)
- Round table discussions of IP companies involved in breeding with Module 2 members in the 2nd (and planned in the 3rd) HG Annual Meeting
In the preparation stage of HEALTHGRAIN we felt not secure about
transfer of results to breeders; one reason being the small number (4)
of breeding companies in the initial Industrial Platform. Later, the IP
attracted a larger number of breeding companies – now 9; these and other
companies show a keen interest in our results. Conclusion: an excellent
position has been created for successful transfer of results to
breeders.
The HEALTHGRAIN Network:
With 44 Participants, the – still growing – Industrial Platform, and the
Nutrition Information Network and Consumer Communication Panel, the
HEALTHGRAIN network encompasses 120 organisations, connected with
meetings and the protected part of the HG website, with a growing amount
of information. At the end of this reporting period a discussions were
started on maintaining this network, including the website, after the
end of HEALTHGRAIN, May 2010.
Dissemination and regional activities
Key results:
After 3 years, a growing number of results with practical relevance has
being obtained – and has been screened for IPR relevance. The key
messages have been summarised in 2 new 6 page leaflets, produced at the
end of the 3rd year:
- HEALTHGRAIN 2008, for cereal scientists and technologists,
- Grain based foods and health – HEALTHGRAIN News – for consumers and organisations communicating to them and for other non-specialists. A range of ppt’s is available on the protected part of the HG website, in order to support participants in communicating these results.
Sponsoring of international conferences:
In addition to presenting papers and posters in a range of conferences
(overview in the Annex to this report), the visibility and impact of
HEALTHGRAIN was enhanced by the sponsoring of international, national
and regional Conferences: in exchange for financial support (IP budget)
conference organisers paid attention to cereal-health related topics,
displayed HG logo in websites, disseminated the HG leaflet and/or
organised a HG Symposium. 4 International conferences in Europe were
sponsored and 4 regional - national or international –
meetings; the 4 latter meetings were in Southern Europe, ‘compensating’
the small number of Southern European HG participants.
Training
Training of HG Participants:
A session HEALTHGRAIN, Breeding, Chemistry and Health ABCZ was held
where the leaders of Module 2, 3, 4 and a flour milling specialist
presented the basics of their disciplines to the project members, in
order to make them more familiar with other disciplines in this project.
With IP Budget support 7 younger staff members of HG participants worked
- for 1 week to several months – in laboratories of other Participants,
aiming at learning and applying new techniques, to the benefit of the
project and themselves.
Training of students and younger staff – for HG Participants and others:
35 (mainly PhD) students participated in this year’s European Young
Cereal Scientists and Technologists Workshop, May 19-21, 2008, Kaunas;
Lithuania a good proportion out of former Eastern Europe. BSc Students
of the universities of Newcastle and Reading were informed about The
HEALTHGRAIN project to illustrate science and its application.
Preparations started for 3 analytical training courses, to be held in
the 4th project year, 2 of them jointly with the MoniQA Network of
Excellence.
“To pave the way for innovations in the area of cereal grain based
foods and health, with focus on bread and pasta”
Therefore activities include, in addition to usual dissemination
activities, close interactions with stakeholder groups - on HEALTHGRAIN
results and relevant external developments, such as the new EU
Regulation on Nutrition and Health Claims - and also close involvement
in international conferences and a growing number of national/regional
meetings.
The objectives in the second project year were:
- to enhance structured interaction with stakeholder groups, by involving the Industrial Platform and the Nutrition Information Network and establishing the Consumer Communication Panel
- to execute a programme for technology transfer with Workshops and Training courses
- to disseminate knowledge by presentations and publications, in international, national and regional events and journals, and by providing information to the public at large
- to support implementation of the HEALTHGRAIN IPR policy, with the IPR Committee
- to develop training activities
- to execute national and regional activities (Netherlands, Italy/Mediterranean area) and assess the value of this approach for other countries
These objectives of WP5.1 are supported by those of WP5.2, the website
workpackage:
- to support communication between HEALTHGRAIN participants and members of the Industrial Platform, Nutrition Information Network and Consumer Communication Panel
- to communicate to the public at large and to provide facilities for an open forum
- to provide basic information on cereal and health (including selected authoritative reviews) and to disseminate project results
- to develop and offer e-learning facilities and activities in the fields covered by HEALTHGRAIN
Interaction with stakeholders and technology transfer
Further membership growth was realised for the Industrial Platform (IP)
(49 to 57, 13 to 14 countries) and the Nutrition Information Network
(NIN) (21 to 27, 14 to 17 countries). The Consumer Communication Panel
(CCP) was established this year (at present 9 members of 9 countries);
in addition to scientists involved in communication to consumers also
representatives of disease related organisations (cancer, celiac
disease) are included. Interaction with these groups was realised in the
Annual Meeting (month 13; IP, NIN), the Industrial Platform
Workshop on consumer perceptions (month 17; IP, CCP), and in a range
activities related to the project website. These included the set-up of
the Regulatory Updates chapter on the website (now part of the Health
Claim issues chapter), with information on the new EU Regulation on
Nutrition and Health Claims made on foods, and chapters with options for
discussion - on Health Claim dossiers (e.g. for whole grain and oat
beta-glucan), the definition of dietary fibre and nutrition profiling.
On nutrition profiling, an enquiry among NIN and CCP members on national
policies for sodium salt reduction in bread – a recent hot topic – got
responses from 16 countries; this large response shows the active
attitude of our stakeholders.
Dissemination to breeders got a start in the half day workshop “European
grains and flours, variation in composition and impact on health”,
preceding the meeting of Eucarpia’s cereal grain section. Module 2 will
publish the results in a set of coherent publications. It was agreed
with IP members involved in breeding to have a discussion on optimal
technology transfer in month 25 and to have close communication about
the results of the diversity screen (WP2.1).
Dissemination and regional activities
The list of all publications, presentations and other dissemination
activities will be attached to the overall report. 2 HG posters were
made, on the HG project and on the IP and its benefits; these were
displayed in Conferences and were distributed for further dissemination
to HG participants, IP, NIN and CCP members. The system for sponsoring
of Conferences was applied in 2 cereal science Conferences and has
turned out to be an excellent tool for dissemination, publicity and new
valuable contacts. 4 New agreements for conference sponsoring were made.
The regional Workshop in Italy “Use of whole-grain flours in bakery
products, constraints and opportunities” for high level industrial
participants will be comprehensively reported in Italian professional
journals. The activities in The Netherlands included an exploratory
study among stakeholders on bread, other bakery products and health, a
half day Workshop with TNO presentations for SME’s and other companies,
and the participation by PGZP and TNO in the Steering Group Bread and
Health, established spring 2007. In addition to Italy and the
Netherlands HEALTHGRAIN became involved in bread, other cereal products
and health discussions in Denmark (NIN), France (CCP and NIN), Germany
(NIN), Norway (CCP), and by HG participants in Finland, Sweden and UK.
IPR and training
All publications and other dissemination activities of HG results were
screened for IPR sensitivity with the Procedure outlined on the website.
Presentations on IPR were given in the 1st Annual Meeting and in the
Project meeting in Milan (month 19). Main conclusions of the inventories
made on training needs were: enabling young scientists in getting
experience in analytical methods and presentation skills should get
priority; training courses by HG for IP members, in addition to the many
Workshops for this group, do not seem to meet a clear demand;
organisations in Europe involved in communication to consumers seldom
use new insights in the relationship whole grain and health in their
messages. Agreements were made on 7 exchanges of young HG scientists to
the laboratories/ institutes of other participants; 3 were realised this
year, to the full satisfaction of visitor and host. 12 HG PhD students
participated in the Young Cereal Scientists and Technologists Workshop
(month 24; total participants: 68). These exchanges and participation
were financially supported with the IP budget.
HEALTHGRAIN website
Efforts to facilitate accessibility and traceability of the rapidly
growing amount of information on the HG website, included the
development of an advanced search system taking into account the 3
access levels: public, IP-NINCCP and HG participants. The Moodle system,
originally set up for e-learning, is being adapted for a range of
activities involving interactions and comments, such as the IPR check on
publications, health claim dossiers and the preparation of joint
publications.
Overview on aims and the objectives 1st project year (June 2005-May2006)
- Developing a comprehensive IPR, technology transfer and dissemination programme with dedicated workshops, contributions to conferences and publications at international and national/regional levels
- Creating a updating a highly interactive website with e-learning functions with parts with restricted access for participants, including Industrial Platform and Nutrition Information Network members and parts without access restrictions
Key elements in the HEALTHGRAIN approach are the establishment of close
links with target groups – industry, nutrition/health experts and
(organisations active in communicating to) consumers – and making a
start with dissemination, training and technology transfer of existing
knowledge related to the project.
The objectives in the first project year were:
- To establish structured interaction with stakeholder groups, by establishing the Industrial Platform and the Nutrition Information Network
- To develop a programme for technology transfer with Workshops and Training courses
- To disseminate knowledge by presentations and publications, in international, national and regional events and journals
- To establish the IPR Committee, supporting implementation of the HEALTHGRAIN (HG) IPR policy
- To develop activities for stimulating and facilitating individual training
- To initiate national and regional activities (Netherlands, Italy/Mediterranean area) and assess the value of this approach for other countries
These objectives are supported by those of the WP5.2, website workpackage:
- to support communication between HEALTHGRAIN participants and members of the Industrial Platform and Nutrition Information Network
- to communicate to the public at large and to provide facilities for an open forum
- to provide basic information on cereal and health (including selected authoritative reviews) and to disseminate project results
- to develop and offer e-learning facilities and activities in the fields covered by HEALTHGRAIN
A project leaflet was prepared and printed in 5000 copies in November 2005, and distributed to all participants and IP members for further dissemination. The start and innovative approach of HEALTHGRAIN was widely communicated in conferences, short publications and press messages. This contributed to the growth of the Industrial Platform (IP) - our first target for knowledge transfer and dissemination - to 49 members, including 18 SME's. Its first 1.5 day workshop in Paris in November 2005- presenting and discussing the present 'grainshealth' knowledge, in relation to forthcoming EU regulations - was highly appreciated, also as a networking opportunity of the 43 participants.. 21 experts/opinion leaders of 14 countries joined the Nutrition Information Network (NIN), which had its first meeting in conjunction with the HEALTHGRAIN Annual Meeting, at the start of the 2nd year. The website www.healthgrain.org was created soon after the start of the project, with 3 access levels: Participants, (IP) and (NIN), and the public part. It is developing into an indispensable tool: internally for project management (e.g. handling IPR issues and reporting), and for Participants, IP and NIN for knowledge transfer and training. Externally it provides information about project background, participants and events.
