$16 Million Grant to International Childhood Nutrition Consortium

University of Tampere is part of an international network of researchers that will develop solutions to maternal and childhood malnutrition in poor countries. The consortium, supported by a new $16 million grant to the University of California, Davis, from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, also includes collaborators at several public and private institutions in Burkina Faso, France, Ghana, Malawi and the United States.

The five-year grant will support research focused on formulating and evaluating an inexpensive fortified, peanut butter-like nutritional supplement to prevent malnutrition in children and women in impoverished nations.

Around the world, approximately 200 million children suffer from undernutrition, leading to growth stunting, developmental delay, and many other adverse health outcomes. Each year, more than three million children die of malnutrition.

“Child malnutrition is not just due to a lack of calories, but also to poor diet quality,” said Per Ashorn, a paediatrician and a professor of International Health at the University of Tampere, and the lead researcher on the project at Tampere.

“Our international team will develop and test cost-effective energy- and nutrient-dense dietary supplements that can be made from locally produced foods and used to enrich the diets of women and children.”

“University of Tampere and University of Malawi have collaborated for about fifteen years to study child health and develop interventions to manage childhood malnutrition. The support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation makes it possible for us to extend the collaboration to several leading institutions in Africa, Europe and the US. The new global network will significantly expand the research portfolio both on malnutrition prevention and treatment,” Ashorn noted.

In total, University of Tampere and University of Malawi will receive approximately six million USD from the grant to UC Davis. The funds will be used to conduct two large clinical trials and several related studies on maternal and child malnutrition in Malawi. Institutional capacity building through training of Malawian and Finnish scientists and staff will be integrated with research activities.

More information
Professor Per Ashorn
Department of International Health

Participating institutions
University of California, Davis, USA, primary applying institution and recipient of the grant
University of Tampere, Finland
University of Malawi
University of Ghana
Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé, Burkina Faso
Washington University, USA
Nutriset, S.A.S., France
Project Peanut Butter, Malawi
Helen Keller International

For more information about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, please go to www.gatesfoundation.org

Photo Ulla Ashorn