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FOODPATH partners from Wageningen ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã, ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã College Cork, Izmir Katip Çelebi ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã, Medical ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of Silesia, and Ghent ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã are attending and presenting at the 2026 International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA) Conference in Cadiz, Spain.

Held on April 28th, the Food Policy Research Hub event, titled "Building Sustainable Food Systems for Resilient Rebels", was led by post-doctoral researcher Dr. Mercedes Gil-Lespinard and research assistant Nora O'Connor. 

FoodPATH project researchers Merve KÄ°P and Piotr Romaniuk participated in the ERA4Health training programme Implementation of AI Tools in Biomedical Research and Healthcare, hosted by ECRIN in Paris on 15–16 April 2026, representing the FoodPATH project. 

Join the UCC Food Policy Research Team on Tuesday, 28th April at 2pm (Room 402, 4th Floor, Western Gateway Building) as we dive into “Building Sustainable Food Systems for Resilient Rebels.” Let’s spark ideas and shape a better food future together!

On Friday, 27 March, students and staff from the School of Public Health at ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã College Cork came together to celebrate the graduates of Masters in Public Health (MPH) at the spring conferrings.

FOODPATH partners from Izmir Katip Celebi ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã, Turkey, recently held several dissemination events in Turkey and Belgrade to share results from the Food-EPI Türkiye 2025.

On the 12^th and 13^th of March, the Annual Meeting of the Early Career Network of the ERA4Health Partnership was held in Brussels, Belgium. Four FOODPATH early-career researchers (ECRs) were present, including Evita van Duin, Nieke Sonneveld, Klaudia Alcer, and Nora O'Connor. 

On 9 March 2026, the results of the Food-EPI Türkiye assessment were presented at the Ege Agricultural Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Türkiye.

Our Dutch partners in Wageningen ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã are the first to have published their findings from the Group Model Building workshops in WP1. Ireland, Poland and Belgium will also publish papers within the next few months with their results and a four-country comparison paper will follow.  

We are pleased to share that our project fellow, Research Assistant Merve Kip, has been accepted to the international training program titled “Implementation of AI Tools in Biomedical Research and Healthcare,” announced by ERA4Health.

As part of Work Package 3, colleagues in Poland, the Netherlands and Ireland have been conducting policy evaluation workshops with expert panels.

Last week the 18^th European Public Health Conference was held in Helsinki, Finland. FOODPATH was represented through a digital poster displaying the Group Model Building in WP1 done in Belgium, presented by Evita van Duin from Ghent ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã. 

On 6 and 7 November 2025, the 2nd Global Citizen Science for Health Conference was held in Zurich, Switzerland. The conference was an important forum for discussion on the current state of citizen science development, the exchange of experiences in carrying out research based on this concept, and future prospects for conducting scientific projects taking into account the voice and involvement of citizens.

As part of the FOODPATH dissemination activities, a conference was organised on October 20th, 2025 at Izmir Katip Celebi ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã, targeting university students and academics.  During the event the Food-EPI Turkey results were presented in detail.  

Merve Kip, from Izmir Katip Celebi ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã, participated in the HDHL @Food4Health Early Career Scientist Workshop: “From Ideas to Proposals – Communication & Collaboration Skills for Early Career Researchers”, hosted by ILSI Europe in Brussels.

The UCC College of Medicine and Health (CoMH) Research Conference, this week, recognised outstanding student research, with Nora O'Connor taking home the award for “Best Student Oral Presentation” for her impactful 3-minute elevator pitch.

The report has sparked some thought-provoking news articles on the topic. WUR published the following news item 

This week, we were delighted to welcome our ERA4Health, FOODPATH colleague, , to Cork and UCC. She joined the Food Policy Research Team, toured our vibrant campus, and visited the School of Public Health.

In the last week of April, Ghent ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã, Belgium completed the last of the three Group Model Building Sessions.

The FOODPATH team at UCC has conducted Group Model Building sessions in Cork city. Focusing on the southwest of the city, including the neighbourhoods of Togher, Ballyphehane, Greenmount, Deerpark and the Lough.

Klaudia Alcer, from the Polish FOODPATH team, and  Evita van Duin from the Belgium team, had the pleasure of attending the Early Career Network meeting in Frankfurt. This network aims to provide a platform for early-career researchers, fostering skill development, mutual learning, and to create connections for potential collaborations.

Four online workshops (19-20 March and 26-27 March) have been completed in the process of developing the Healthy Food Environment Policy Index for Türkiye (Food-EPI Türkiye). 

"Last week, Evita van Duin had the opportunity to present the work of the Belgium FOODPATH team to professionals from the Flemish Institute of Healthy Living.

In the framework of the development of the Healthy Food Environment Policy Index for Turkey (Food-EPI Turkey), a face-to-face workshop was organised with experts. Further workshops will take place online.

We would like to thank all participants for their contributions.

UCC’s FOODPATH team recently invited the rest of our colleagues on the Food Policy Research Team to join us for a workshop to discuss which stakeholders would be best placed to help us improve food environments in disadvantaged areas of Cork city. This stakeholder power analysis will be used in conjunction with the results of our Group Model Building sessions, to identify leverage points for change in local food environments.

The evidence document prepared within the scope of the work package for the development of a Food-EPI Türkiye was sent to the government office for evaluation. 

Insightful sessions have been held with professionals and citizens in Ede, the Netherlands, about systemic drivers of dietary behaviours among people living in socioeconomic insecurity as outlined in Work package One (WP1)