Nesta and the Behavioural Insights Team will join a consortium of academic and innovation partners to run food system trials in England. The trials will evaluate interventions to assess their effectiveness in encouraging healthier and more sustainable diets. 

The research programme was awarded £5.4 million through a commissioning process run by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The funding comes from the government’s Evaluation Accelerator Fund (EAF), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

Poor diet is the second leading cause of ill health in the UK. In England, 26% of adults (12 million people) are obese and a further 38% are overweight. Obesity is responsible for illness and deaths from many diseases including type 2 diabetes, several types of cancer, heart disease and stroke. 

The SALIENT programme will design and trial a large number of interventions across the English food system, such as reducing the availability of unhealthy foods in supermarkets or promoting plant-based alternatives in canteens, to assess their effectiveness. The grant forms part of the government response to the National Food Strategy for England and it aims to improve the evidence base around what works and how to improve diets.

The programme is a cross institutional and interdisciplinary partnership, co-led by Peter Scarborough, Professor of Population Health at the University of Oxford and Martin White, Professor of Population Health Research at the University of Cambridge. 

Hugo Harper, director of healthy life at Nesta said: “If we want to make change at scale then we need better answers on what really works. We know that just focusing on education or personal choices has limited impact when it comes to what we eat. Instead we’ll focus on large scale interventions that have the potential to transform the English food system and improve the nation’s health”.

The consortium team will engage with food system partners like major retailers as well as members of the public to design and test interventions that encourage the purchase of healthy sustainable food. Interventions will be tested in three priority settings - retail, catering and community support. The programme will run until March 2025.

The programme is designed to help inform best practice and evidence-based policy. Members of the consortium are working closely with a programme board led by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which includes officials across several government departments.

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For more information on the analysis or to speak to one of the experts involved, please contact Mark Byrne, Head of Media and Marketing, on 07745 234 909 or [email protected]. 

SALIENT programme

The consortium includes Behavioural Insights Team,Nesta,  London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Birmingham, University of Cambridge, University of Hertfordshire, University of Liverpool, University of Oxford, and University of Warwick.

This programme is a partnership between ESRC and multiple government departments, including:

• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
• Food Standards Agency (FSA)
• Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
• Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)
• Department for Education (DfE).

It is part funded by a successful bid to the Cabinet Office’s Evaluation Accelerator Fund (EAF) that was led by Defra.

Announced by the Chancellor in the autumn 2021 Budget, the EAF is aimed at addressing nationally important evidence gaps by supporting research activity that could inform future policy and spending decisions. The EAF is particularly targeted at supporting research using experimental and quasi-experimental methods.

This funding opportunity is also made possible by financial contributions from Defra and the FSA.