EuroFIR AISBL - Annual Report 2019

As EuroFIR AISBL moves into its 11th year of operations, we can continue to be pleased with progress in establishing a self-funding, independent international Association. However, the continued support of our Members remains essential to future success and we need to be aware of your needs and refine our activities accordingly.

During 2019, I have been particularly satisfied with three broad areas, namely publication and implementation of guidelines and tools, which means updating datasets is easier and quicker, junior staff who have taken ownership of their personal and professional development, and participation in Technical Discussion Groups, which has been excellent and enabled better communication amongst compiler Members, users, and EuroFIR.

Otherwise, our achievements range from the expected updates of FoodEXplorer and eBASIS to the creation of seven open access datasets for countries in Africa and Asia as well as open access to the Australian dataset. We are also involved in the CHAFEA- funded EUREMO, which aims to establish online, open-branded food datasets for at least 16 Member States, which would be useful for our compiler Members.

We have secured funding from a new stream, namely AAL, Active Assisted Living Programme - Ageing Well in the Digital World, a European programme funding innovation that aims to keep us connected, healthy, active and happy into old age. We have also been successful in securing one of the largest and most complex EU- funded grants EuroFIR has been involved in, namely FNS-Cloud, which means we will recruit new staff in 2020 to undertake the extra work.

We continue with additional EIT Food-funding for personalised nutrition (PERSFO), this time in the workplace with four partners in Belgium and one in the UK. It remains to be seen what impact BREXIT has on our collaboration with UK organisations and we can only hope there is as little disruption as possible for everyone, especially our UK- based staff.
As ever, my thanks go to the EuroFIR Directors, who continue to have an essential role in strategic planning and operations. This year, we were delighted to have Susanne Westenbrink (RIVM - NL) re-elected as a Director, for a further three years, and welcomed Loek Pijls (Loekintofood, BE) as a Director with his vast experience of food nutrition research and regulatory affairs in large food companies in Europe. We also appreciated Karl Presser’s willingness to step into the role of vice-president with special responsibility for ICT and research infrastructure development.

We were pleased to have 15 new Members join the Association as well as working with several new commercial Clients. It is essential that we continue to recruit Members, as it is your fees that enable development of tools and services, whilst EU- and otherwise-funded project raise our profile and understanding of the importance of food composition data in the 21st century.

On a personal note, I have decided to step down as President, from April 2020, after four enjoyable years at the helm, but will remain as Managing Director of EuroFIR. I look forward to working with the new President or the vice-Presidents and Directors.