Periodic Reporting for period 1 - COMFOCUS (Communities on Food Consumer Science)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-03-01 al 2022-08-31
Many of today’s major economic, ecological and societal challenges are rooted in the consumption behaviour and lifestyle choices of consumers. The Food Consumer Science (FCS) field focuses on the understanding of consumers’ beliefs, perceptions and behaviour regarding food and food products. The field aims to develop a scientific understanding of the (un-)healthy eating patterns and consumption behaviours of consumers. Currently, the FCS field is too fragmented to provide actionable insights that are more tailored to serve interventions, policies and strategies to solve the current challenges. To be able to do so, the FCS field needs to work more harmonised and integrated on different levels, including harmonisation of measures, research procedures and protocols, integration of (heterogeneous) data sources and opening of key research infrastructures.
The mission of COMFOCUS is to advance the FCS field beyond its current level of fragmentation, that is preventing it from being the data-rich science, contributing to the problems we are facing (e.g. societal problem of (un-healthy) food choices) and to become future proof.
The objective of COMFOCUS is to bring together, integrate and open up key European research infrastructures in the interdisciplinairy field of FCS to all European researchers (from both academia and industry) in order to promote their optimal use and joint development. The result will be a library of meta data and digitital service tools, accessible on the COMFOCUS Knowledge Platform. This platform will serve as an accessible focal point for all European researchers and will comply with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Inter-operable & Re-usable) and RRI (Responsible Research & Innovation) principles.
To contribute to the mission and to reach the objective COMFOCUS will implement a coordinated set of activities on (see also Figure 1):
1) Networking – this will allow better use of the existing research infrastructures and strengthen collaboration across FCS groups, disciplines and borders by close interactions with academic and industry users and technology developers.
2)Joint research – these set of activities will develop harmonised protocols and research approaches on self-reported data and emerging technologies in the FCS field.
3) Virtual and Transnational Acces (VA/TNA) – these, in the form of Open Calls, will prepare and introduce researchers from in- and outside the consortium to this “new way of working” and provide them the opportunity to build and expand their network and to have access to other research groups and facilities, while they also contribute data as ‘proofs of principle’ to further build the COMFOCUS Knowledge platform.
In these Open Calls researchers will get access to 10 different key European infrastructures (including an easy questionnaire tool, reconstructed/virtual reality, eye tracking, heart rate, galvanic skin response, electro encephalography and face reader).
Promotion and dissemination of COMFOCUS outcomes and VA/TNA will be supported by the Stakeholder Forum and International Advisory Board, that include relevant and important representatives and organisations.
The above mentioned three coordinated set of activites are embedded and interlinked with eachother in the different Work Packages (see Figure 1).
The mission of COMFOCUS is to advance the FCS field beyond its current level of fragmentation, that is preventing it from being the data-rich science, contributing to the problems we are facing (e.g. societal problem of (un-healthy) food choices) and to become future proof.
The objective of COMFOCUS is to bring together, integrate and open up key European research infrastructures in the interdisciplinairy field of FCS to all European researchers (from both academia and industry) in order to promote their optimal use and joint development. The result will be a library of meta data and digitital service tools, accessible on the COMFOCUS Knowledge Platform. This platform will serve as an accessible focal point for all European researchers and will comply with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Inter-operable & Re-usable) and RRI (Responsible Research & Innovation) principles.
To contribute to the mission and to reach the objective COMFOCUS will implement a coordinated set of activities on (see also Figure 1):
1) Networking – this will allow better use of the existing research infrastructures and strengthen collaboration across FCS groups, disciplines and borders by close interactions with academic and industry users and technology developers.
2)Joint research – these set of activities will develop harmonised protocols and research approaches on self-reported data and emerging technologies in the FCS field.
3) Virtual and Transnational Acces (VA/TNA) – these, in the form of Open Calls, will prepare and introduce researchers from in- and outside the consortium to this “new way of working” and provide them the opportunity to build and expand their network and to have access to other research groups and facilities, while they also contribute data as ‘proofs of principle’ to further build the COMFOCUS Knowledge platform.
In these Open Calls researchers will get access to 10 different key European infrastructures (including an easy questionnaire tool, reconstructed/virtual reality, eye tracking, heart rate, galvanic skin response, electro encephalography and face reader).
Promotion and dissemination of COMFOCUS outcomes and VA/TNA will be supported by the Stakeholder Forum and International Advisory Board, that include relevant and important representatives and organisations.
The above mentioned three coordinated set of activites are embedded and interlinked with eachother in the different Work Packages (see Figure 1).
Below we provide a summary of the work that has been performed in the first reporting period. A more extensive description of the work performed can be found in section 1.2 (Work carried out by the work packages):
• Two online consortium meetings (one kick-off meeting in March 2021, and an Annual Meeting in February 2022) have been organised, together with a face-to-face meeting as an extra consortium meeting (June 13 & 14, 2022, The Hague, The Netherlands).
• Open Call #1 is launched and open for submissions. The deadline for applications is extended to 31 October 2022. The Open Call is promoted at several events, and separate information sessions have been organised, but we still experience a too low number of applications.
• Harmonisation of self-reported measures is almost complete and most of the deliverables have been uploaded (WP4).
• Metadata descriptions for harmonized measures and protocols have been developed (WP5). Discussion to align the expectations and views on the ontology to be developed within this project is ongoing.
• Working groups on developing guidelines for psychophysiological measures (eye-tracking, heart rate, galvanic skin response, facial expressions) (WP6). First steps are made in harmonizing extended reality, text mining and longitudinal data approaches (e.g. literature reviews).
• Tools for (1) checking the validity of data in a dataset and its metadata, (2) easy finding of single or multiple datasets, (3) exploring research protocols are currently under development as well as the methodology for scientific analysis and visualisation tool (WP7).
• General outlines to foster Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) are produced and RRI issues and challenges identified (WP8). Activities focused on governance requirements, applying RRI principles to each WP, a Data Governance Proposal and a Data Deposition Agreement.
• Easy Questionnaire Tool (EQT) is under development as Virtual Access tool for Open Call 1 (WP9). Demos have been organized and instruction video of the EQT, that guide users with the EQT, is in the making.
• Two online consortium meetings (one kick-off meeting in March 2021, and an Annual Meeting in February 2022) have been organised, together with a face-to-face meeting as an extra consortium meeting (June 13 & 14, 2022, The Hague, The Netherlands).
• Open Call #1 is launched and open for submissions. The deadline for applications is extended to 31 October 2022. The Open Call is promoted at several events, and separate information sessions have been organised, but we still experience a too low number of applications.
• Harmonisation of self-reported measures is almost complete and most of the deliverables have been uploaded (WP4).
• Metadata descriptions for harmonized measures and protocols have been developed (WP5). Discussion to align the expectations and views on the ontology to be developed within this project is ongoing.
• Working groups on developing guidelines for psychophysiological measures (eye-tracking, heart rate, galvanic skin response, facial expressions) (WP6). First steps are made in harmonizing extended reality, text mining and longitudinal data approaches (e.g. literature reviews).
• Tools for (1) checking the validity of data in a dataset and its metadata, (2) easy finding of single or multiple datasets, (3) exploring research protocols are currently under development as well as the methodology for scientific analysis and visualisation tool (WP7).
• General outlines to foster Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) are produced and RRI issues and challenges identified (WP8). Activities focused on governance requirements, applying RRI principles to each WP, a Data Governance Proposal and a Data Deposition Agreement.
• Easy Questionnaire Tool (EQT) is under development as Virtual Access tool for Open Call 1 (WP9). Demos have been organized and instruction video of the EQT, that guide users with the EQT, is in the making.
COMFOCUS aims to take steps towards a new way of conducting scientific research, in which added value is achieved through better and smarter collaboration between scientists and building on each other's infrastructure, expertise and data. Many food consumer scientists see a need to take these steps, but concrete changes require awareness about what is needed to make this possible. In the period up to now, a better understanding has been gained about where the consumer science community stands in this regard and steps have been taken in elaborating the underlying Logical framework on food consumer science, FAIR principles of data collection and sharing, including the ethical, legal and social issues that indicate the preconditions. Ultimately, COMFOCUS is expected to make progress in harmonizing and standardizing measurement tools and providing access to its Knowledge Platform where food consumer scientists share and integrate data.
For the complete description of the progress beyond the state of the art, expected results until the end of the project and potential impacts, we refer to the DoA. Furthermore, a more extensive description of whether the intended impacts of COMFOCUS are still relevant or need to be updated based on the work carried out so far can be found in section 1.3 (Impact).
For the complete description of the progress beyond the state of the art, expected results until the end of the project and potential impacts, we refer to the DoA. Furthermore, a more extensive description of whether the intended impacts of COMFOCUS are still relevant or need to be updated based on the work carried out so far can be found in section 1.3 (Impact).