What NPU Does
The Nutrition Policy Unit operates on three fronts --- communication, teaching and research.
Food is a major focus of London Metropolitan University's work, in all its diversity, from basic science through business applications and health consequences. The communications part of the Unit's activity makes the university's skills and knowledge in this field available to diverse groups in the community who are dealing with contemporary dietary problems, including:
* government
* health professionals
* industry
* advocacy groups
* academic specialists
* media
The Unit disseminates the research findings of university staff to relevant audiences beyond academia, with emphasis on practical and policy implications. It also receives incoming enquiries, from policy makers, working professionals, the media and others, guiding them to appropriate experts within the university.
The teaching component of the Unit's work is a unique programme for postgraduate students. The Nutrition Politics & Policy module of the M.Sc in Human Nutrition develops students' capacity to analyse existing policies and design new ones.
The module includes contributions by a diverse array of "frontline practitioners" from politics, advocacy groups and the food industry, all active in varied forms of nutrition and food policy.
An extension into undergraduate teaching is planned for the future.
The Unit conducts its own research, supervises postgraduate dissertations on policy-related subjects, and collaborates with university colleagues of policy aspects of their research. The latest example of the Unit's research is The School Fringe project.
The Director of the Unit is Prof J T Winkler.
