SMAR3TS project partner University of Cambridge – IfM Engage is seeking innovative approaches to translate cross-disciplinary science into actionable solutions that improve young people’s mental health and wellbeing, especially when it to nutrition and food systems.
Mental health challenges among young people are rising sharply across Europe, driven by complex interactions between nutrition, biology, environment, social conditions and education systems. While advances in nutrition science, gut-brain research, behavioural science and public health are providing new insights into how diet and food environments influence mental health, this knowledge remains fragmented across scientific domains and poorly embedded in real-world practice.
IfM Engage specialises in excellent science driven by impact and university-industry and -policy collaboration to address societal needs. Within SMAR3TS, this I3X challenge focuses on building a validated, cross-disciplinary knowledge platform and action framework that enables practical interventions in food, education, and health systems to support youth mental resilience.
The Innovate3X (I3X) challenge—framed as a call to develop solutions for resilience, restoration and regeneration—invites SMAR3TS partners to contribute through secondments to co-develop and deploy this knowledge into real-world impact.
In response to this I3X, secondees could work on e.g.:
- Integrating nutrition, neuroscience, mental health, and food system evidence into a coherent framework
- Supporting multi-stakeholder engagement across food innovation ecosystems
- Creating impact metrics to assess how food and nutrition influence mental health outcomes.
SMAR3TS project partner – University of Cambridge (IfM Engage, Institute for Manufacturing) is looking for innovative approaches to join up science across nutrition, food systems, and mental health in order to deliver actionable solutions that improve young people’s mental wellbeing.
For more info, please see the details in the attachments.
Please note: the secondments are open only to SMAR3TS Consortium Partners.
Necessary skills and capabilities across disciplines
This I3X requires a combination of:
Examples of challenges that need to be addressed
1.Fragmented scientific evidence
Knowledge about food, nutrition and mental health is scattered across disciplines and lacks a single validated, comprehensive reference for practitioners and policymakers.
2. Weak translation from science to practice
Research findings are rarely embedded in schools, healthcare, food environments and public policy in ways that improve mental health outcomes.
3. Lack of trusted guidance for decision-makers
Clinicians, educators, and public authorities lack clear, evidence-based frameworks for designing food and nutrition interventions for mental well-being.
4. Coordination of multi-stakeholder ecosystems
Effective solutions require collaboration between researchers, clinicians, schools, food producers, regulators and innovators, which is currently difficult to organise and sustain.
I3X at the University of Cambridge – About the initiator
1. Background info
IfM Engage is part of the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge, and specialises in translating research into practice through industry, government and societal engagement.
Website: https://engage.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk
2. Research Group/Company Department
IfM Engage facilitates the translation of scientific and technological knowledge into real-world impact through consulting, education, roadmapping and communication, supporting organisations to address sustainability, health and innovation challenges.
Link to the website:https://engage.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk
Contact info: Dr David Lott,Chief Executive Officer, Academic Division: Manufacturing and Management, Email: dl362@cam.ac.uk
See attachment for more info about the I3X initiator and I3X description.
Alignment to Work-Packages (Nutrition, Mobility, Energy, Housing)
SMAR3TS domains that are relevant to the work of the IFM Engage research and innovation team: nutrition.
This I3X is primarily aligned with the Nutrition domain of SMAR3TS, addressing food, diet, and health, while also connecting to education, public health, and social systems.
Alignment to Resilience, Restoration, Regeneration (R3)
This I3X supports resilient, restorative, and regenerative food systems development, more specifically:
-Understanding how resilience can strengthen young people’s mental and cognitive capacity to cope with societal stress and change
-Exploring restoration practices by addressing diet- and environment-related drivers of mental health decline
- Studying regenerative innovation industry practices in the food sector to enable healthier food systems, behaviours, and knowledge ecosystems
Note:
The expression of interest for the secondment at the University of Cambridge (IFM Engage) must be submitted via the platform. Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and you will be contacted as soon as possible. For any questions, please contact: info@smar3ts.eu
SMAR3TS (Staff Mobility to Action Resilient, Restorative, & Regenerative Transitions & Societies) enables secondments (staff exchanges), between 36 partners, across 16 countries (and 4 continents), to undertake cutting-edge research and innovation on resilience, restoration, regeneration (R3) across four sectors: energy, mobility, nutrition and housing, to accelerate pathways to economic, environmental and societal impact.
SMAR3TS is funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Staff Exchange Program Project ID: 101236376.
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