Sustainable Nutrition Research for Africa in the Years to come

EU Funded project (2011-2013). Coordinator Prof Dr Patrick Kolsteren ITM Antwerp, Belgium. SUNRAY is a Coordination and Support Action of the EU FP7 AFRICA call under Grant Agreement nr. 266080

The SUNRAY project will develop a nutrition research agenda for sub-Saharan Africa. 

The main activities in SUNRAY are:

1. Mapping of current research. SUNRAY will identify the main actors and lines of research in the field of nutrition in Africa. An inventory of all academic and applied research in the field of nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa will be made. The major research topics, research locations, actors and funders will be identified through desk research and mobilisation of existing networks. In addition, a sample of the researchers will be interviewed to analyse the drivers and constraints doing nutrition research in Africa, and understand unmet needs as perceived by African researchers.
2. Stakeholder analysis. The relevance of the on-going nutrition research will be evaluated from the perspective of different stakeholders such as local policy makers, small and medium size enterprise, health and agricultural professionals, social sector etc. Multi-criteria mapping analysis will be used to identify the research options that each interviewee deems significant, capture their ranking of the options and their weightings of the relative importance of each option.
3. Assessment of the future research needs in nutrition research. A series of papers (i.e. climate change, markets, demography, social dynamics, water and political dynamics and governance) will identify emerging research challenges for the nutrition research community.
4. Regional workshops (Tanzania, Benin, South Africa) will be organised to build consensus between stakeholders, develop a coherent research agenda and outline the conditions and actions required to implement it.

Related: Workshop IX at the conference of Leeds: How can plant science research be translated into impact on food security?

SUNRAY - Sustainable nutrition research for Africa in the years to come - Patrick Kolsteren

The SUNRAY Consortium is:

	Institute for Tropical Medicine, Belgium (coordinator) Patrick Kolsteren
	Wageningen University, The Netherlands Dr. Fré Pepping
	North-West University (Potchefstroom), South Africa Prof. Annamarie Kruger
	Sokoine University, Tanzania Dr. Joyce Kinabo
	University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin Dr. Romain Dossa
	Intermón Oxfam, Spain Mrs. Teresa Cavero
	Institute for Tropical Medicine, Belgium Carl Lachat
	International Foundation for Science, Sweden Mrs. Nathalie Persson Andrianasitera
	Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, France Dr. Michelle Holdsworth
	Makerere University, Uganda Dr. Christopher Garimoi Orach