The ANH Academy will hold its 10th annual ANH Academy Week Research Conference from 24-26 June 2024, online and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Research Conference
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
The ANH Academy invites the submission of abstracts for the Research Conference on the nexus of agriculture and food systems, nutrition and health. We welcome abstracts from all relevant disciplines, including but not limited to economics, nutrition, public health, epidemiology, environmental and climate sciences, agronomy, social and political sciences, and anthropology. We encourage submissions by researchers with backgrounds that are underrepresented in science.
What we are looking for
We give preference to innovative interdisciplinary research studies that explore the linkages between agriculture, food systems, nutrition, and health. These studies should capture emerging debates, and contain substantive innovative, analytical scientific content relating to nutrition/health pathways in agriculture and food systems.
Please note: At the time of submission it is not a requirement that abstracts contain results or findings. However, results/findings must be ready by the event. In your abstract, please indicate what type of data, findings and results you might expect.
Key definitions for the purpose of this call:
Agriculture and food systems include food production, distribution, processing, trade, and marketing; and the resources, systems, stakeholders, governance, and institutions involved in these processes. Crop production, horticulture, aquaculture, and livestock are all encompassed in this definition of agriculture.
Nutrition outcomes refer broadly to food consumption, food choice behaviors, dietary/feeding patterns, adequacy of diets, and nutritional status (including double burden of malnutrition).
Health outcomes refer to diet-related chronic diseases, mental health, infectious diseases, health conditions associated with agricultural environments and food systems, including zoonoses and anti-microbial resistance, and food safety.
Agriculture/food systems-Nutrition/health pathways include determinants of agriculture and food systems (examples: environment, land use, climate change, ecology, governance, macroeconomic policies) and their impacts – socioeconomic, distributional, cultural, agroecological, geographical, behavioral, climate change, planetary health etc. – which have implications on nutrition and health outcomes. For instance, these could involve the pathways linking agriculture and food systems, household water security, and infectious disease transmission; or the pathways linking food advertising, food cultures, diet quality, and diet-related chronic conditions.
Conference themes
Please note: Gender, empowerment and equity cut across all themes
Food system governance, rights, and political economy
E.g. Commercial determinants of health; power relations affecting policy formation and implementation; right to food, food sovereignty, conflicts of interest; accountability; incentives; risks for chronic diseases from complex and global food systems; trade regimes; communications and advocacy for translating research and policy change.
Impacts of policies and programmes and implementation science
E.g. Lessons learnt from designing, implementing and evaluating complex programmes; scaling up; lessons from what has not worked; trade-offs between programme benefits and concurrent undesirable impacts; comparative research across contexts and intervention typologies; policy sub-system analyses.
Economic evaluation and financing of multi-sectoral programmes for nutrition and health
E.g. Economic decision making among households, public and private sectors; methods for estimating costs, cost-effectiveness, and cost-efficiency of multi-sectoral policies/programmes with multiple consequences; application of costs for national and global strategic planning.
Innovative methods, tools, and metrics
E.g. Methods, tools, and metrics to study complex systems, equity and empowerment, nutrition-health pathways in agriculture and food systems; citizen science for nutrition; innovation in implementation science research; innovative causal identification designs; comparative research (how do results obtained with different methods, tools, and metrics on the same topic compare or differ); taking stock of what worked and what did not in terms of methods, metrics, and tools, and identifying gaps.
Demand creation for nutritious and healthy diets
E.g. Motivations, capabilities, agency, incentives, and opportunities of individuals (including mental health), households, and institutions; drivers of food choice; food environment; food systems-based approaches for demand creation.
Market-based approaches for sustainable and healthy diets
E.g. Infrastructure development, income and/or price supports, value-chain development, financing, market-oriented solutions for food loss and waste; improving market access and integration for smallholders and marginalised groups, cooperatives and territorial markets.
Health risks of and for food systems
E.g. agricultural drivers of zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial resistance; health risks of complex and global food systems, including spread of infectious diseases; land-use change (including urbanisation) and disease spread; occupational exposures and negative externalities associated with food system livelihoods; water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in the food system context; food safety; mental health.
Climate change, planetary health and food systems
E.g. Circular food systems, food loss and food waste; impacts of climate and environmental change on agriculture, nutrition, and health; sustainable and healthy diets; impact of food systems on climate change and the environment; strategies to improve adaptation and resilience.
Diets and nutrition in conflict, protracted and/or humanitarian contexts
E.g. Food systems in fragile settings; safety and security in the provision of diets, agri-food logistics and value chain strategies in complex emergencies; migration and food security; disaster risk reduction, preparations, and recovery in food systems.
How to submit and submission deadline
Authors should submit abstracts through the ANH Academy website by 13 October 2024 at 23.59 wherever you are. Applications for a travel bursary should be made in a separated form. Any queries can be directed to [email protected].
We encourage the viewing of How to Write an Effective Abstract, a learning lab held during ANH2022.
Submit your abstract
Apply for a travel bursary
Selection process
The ANH Academy Week Research Conference receives more abstracts than it can accept for presentations. Therefore, abstracts will be reviewed by the ANH Academy Week 2025 Scientific Committee and selected on the following four criteria:
- Relevance to the themes
- Scientific rigor
- Abstract quality
- Originality
Please consider these criteria carefully when submitting your abstract!
If your abstract is accepted for the Conference, the Committee will decide on whether an abstract is selected for an oral presentation or a poster session. As mentioned above, the exact presentation formats will be determined approximately 8 weeks before the event. This may include innovation in the style, nature, and length of oral and poster presentations (i.e., in the form of facilitated discussions or conventional presentations).
The conference programme will be hybrid and anticipate that a larger proportion of oral and poster presentations will be allocated to in person speakers.