What we do

The RIPEN Hub is part of the BBSRC: Diet and Health Open Innovation Research Club and was established in November 2022. For the purposes of this initiative, over the next five years, we will aim to develop an Innovation Hub and uncover the complex relationship between food components and human physiology. The Representation is led by Imperial College London, University of Surrey (UoS) and PepsiCo.

Hub aim

Our world-class Innovation Hub will provide the environment and thought leadership to enable collaborations, work in synergy, and develop innovative solutions and translational pathways. The Hub’s ultimate aim is to support the development of healthier diets, thereby enhancing the Health of the Nation. A concomitant aim will be to create development pathways that will contribute to reducing the risk of obesity and NCDs in the UK population.

Why is this important?

Epidemiological evidence accumulated over the past few decades shows that NCDs are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the UK and worldwide. Many NCD’s are closely related to unhealthy lifestyles and particularly poor-quality diets. Nutritional epidemiology and randomised controlled trials have long established the associations of specific foods, nutrients, food structure and overall dietary patterns with increased risk of cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis and sarcopenia; with intermediate outcomes such as weight gain, increased blood pressure, insulin resistance, hyperclycemia, low bone density and reduced muscle strength. This highlights the central role of diet & Nutrition in the Aetiology of NCDs. 

Our Hub recognises the urgent need for inherent academic-industrial partnerships if headway is to be made in producing/creating a healthier, sustainable food environment, with beneficial effects on nutritional status and health. 

This will be achieved through the following specific objectives, using both the Hub’s Impact Account and Education Programme: 

The Hub will support research and translation activity that bridges the gap between biosciences research and development to better understand the interplay between food components and human physiology; and to ultimately improve health. 

It will provide thought leadership and build critical mass in the areas that affect food and its consumption in relation to human physiology by catalysing partnerships. 

We will aim to develop long-term partnerships between businesses and academia that will result in co-design of projects which will inform UK policy. 

We will develop talent and a vibrant environment in the field of food and human physiology interaction. 

We will support and develop the next generation of young scientists in the area of food and human physiology interaction. 

The Hub will ensure effective communication and dissemination of all its activities with the British Nutrition Foundation. 

Meet the team

The overall Hub is currently consisting of ten Academic Institutions, as well as, key members of the food industry and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Civil Societies, Charities, Government and a diverse External Advisory Board and we are also looking to grow this exponentially. Our collective team will embrace the challenge of developing a Hub that can bring the depth of understanding of the interplay between food components and human physiology. This will stimulate and lead to high quality science and rapid translation into the market through close academic and industrial partnerships.

Representatives: