MaNuEL, the Knowledge Hub on Malnutrition in the Elderly
The Joint Action ‘Malnutrition in the Elderly Knowledge Hub’ resulted in the Knowledge Hub MaNuEL, which brings together research groups from 7 countries. The researchers will work together to build better research capacity on Malnutrion in the Elderly across Europe.
Funding organisations from Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain joint forces to financially support a Knowledge Hub on Malnutrition with an envisaged budget of about 1 M€. Researchers from 7 countries expressed their interest to become a member of the Malnutrition in the Elderly Knowledge Hub. The national funding agencies selected the researchers to participate in this Knowledge Hub following their national procedure. In total 22 participating research groups from 7 countries were selected and worked together on a research proposal which received a positive funding decision at the end of 2015.
MaNuEL will create a network of dedicated scientists to build better research capacity on malnutrition across Europe. It will contribute to a common / shared understanding regarding the definition of malnutrition, the aetiology and prevalence of malnutrition in older persons, preferred screening tools, and effective interventions for malnutrition in older persons from different health care settings. MaNuEL will perform systematic literature reviews to complete the present fragmentary picture on malnutrition and to identify potential knowledge gaps. Furthermore, MaNuEL will bring together and harmonize transnational datasets from nutritional intervention trials and observational studies to perform secondary analyses and build a research infrastructure for future research questions. Finally, MaNuEL will provide insight in current clinical practice, policies, and health professionals education on malnutrition and will identify best practice examples and recommendations for improvement.
The project is led by KH coordinator Prof. dr. Ir Marjolein Visser (VU Medical Center Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and KH coördinator Dorothee Volkert (Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany). It is expected that this Knowledge Hub will start early 2016.
