COMFOCUS has recently launched the Academic Training program, which is part of the project summer schools. The aim of Academic Training is to foster learning with COMFOCUS and demonstrate and disseminate harmonised measurements, protocols, datasets, as well as to study best practices in the field of food consumer science.

Topics of Academic Training include: general introduction to consumer science, hands-on training at food consumer science harmonised measurements, protocols and guidelines for use of infrastructures and dedicated installations. Furthermore, basic insight in data models and methods of creating meta data, use of guidelines, raw data acquisition and processing (data) pipelines.

This online training session was held online on November 20, 2023. Besides an online event, the project is also going to organise a couple of face-to-face events in different European cities. The first one will take place in Ljubljana (Slovenia) in February – March, 2024!

This workshop, titled “Why We Eat What We Eat: Better Understanding of Healthy Eating Patterns in Practice,” took place in Belgrade on November 13, 2023. The overarching theme aimed at advancing food consumer science through harmonization, data integration, and collaboration.

The program started with a welcoming address. Ellen van Kleef delivered a presentation on the harmonization of self-report measures, examining the reasons for harmonization and its impact on research quality and scientific creativity. Subsequently, participants engaged in a discussion to share their perspectives on the harmonization of self-report measures. Mainly, benefits such as the importance for research outcome comparability, prevention of research waste, and the necessity of linking data were highlighted. Drawbacks included difficulty in implementation, the need for robust governance mechanisms, time consumption, and challenges in harmonization.

Harold Bult then explored the opportunities and challenges associated with physio-physical measures for understanding eating behaviour and data integration. By casting their votes and sharing their opinions, the emphasis was placed on the practical implementation of physio-physical measures. The majority of participants expressed interest in including more implicit measures in their research, particularly in EEG measures and pupil size measures. Challenges preventing their use included a lack of knowledge on psychophysiology, complex measures, and difficulties in harmonizing results.

Following this, Lada Timotijevic discussed the principles of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and Responsible Research & Innovation (RRI).  After that, participants delved into essential aspects of responsible and transparent research concerning data derived from a dating app. Although not a typical research topic in the field, the discussion provided a fresh perspective on how individuals view the use of their personal data as participants on platforms, shedding light on concerns such as selling data to large companies or specific research questions. The importance of considering the user’s perspective and potential reuse in later stages was emphasized for researchers.

The workshop concluded with a brief plenary discussion, allowing participants to share insights and wrap up the workshop.