WHO renews partnership with the University of Oxford, promoting healthy and sustainable diets

WHO/Europe has designated the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford as the WHO Collaborating Centre for the Promotion of Healthy and Sustainable Diets. This builds on the strong foundation of a previous collaboration, as the Department partnered as a collaborating centre in 2013-2021. The new centre will support WHO's work, specifically in the WHO European Region, by providing evidence and building capacity to advance policies for healthier and more environmentally sustainable food systems.

The centre's key areas of support will include contributing to the development of WHO's Nutrient Profile Models, a critical policy tool for public health nutrition, and developing and delivering targeted training courses in collaboration with WHO to support capacity-building initiatives.

The centre's team includes early-career, mid-career and senior researchers with different skills and areas of expertise - from health and environmental modelling to qualitative co-production research methods. Harnessing these different yet complementary approaches allows the team to produce policy-relevant research that reflects the needs and experiences of different food system stakeholders.

"The global food system faces many health and environmental challenges; however, these challenges also present significant opportunities for transformation and positive change," said Dr Jessica Renzella, co-head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for the Promotion of Healthy and Sustainable Diets. "Our team feels extremely excited and honoured to be designated as a collaborating centre, as the designation formalizes our relationship with WHO, and in doing so, creates new opportunities for evidence to inform real-world decision-making. It is our hope that our new collaboration with WHO will create policy and public health impact."

"I'm delighted that our partnership with WHO has been renewed. This relationship has led to many fruitful collaborations over the years and has helped our research reach global policy audiences," said Professor Mike Rayner, co-head of the centre.

"As with all global systems, the key challenge to the food system in the 21st century is sustainability. Increasingly, governments need to take policy action to help ensure that the food system is healthy and equitable, and that its environmental footprint is kept within planetary boundaries. This will involve different actions in different countries, but increasingly we are finding that policies for sustainable diets have positive health co-benefits. I am delighted that this collaborating centre will help us share good policy and practice for healthy, sustainable and equitable food systems." said Professor Peter Scarborough, principal investigator of the Sustainable Healthy Food Group.

"WHO/Europe warmly welcomes the re-designation of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford as the WHO Collaborating Centre for the Promotion of Healthy and Sustainable Diets," said Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe. "Through this partnership, we will strengthen the evidence and capacity needed to advance healthier, more equitable and sustainable food systems across the WHO European Region."