Major donation for healthier children

4 Februar 2009

University of Copenhagen has received a donation of 100 million kroner from the Nordea Foundation to fund a wide reaching research project that will strengthen public health and with a special focus on child health, well-being and welfare.

The five-year OPUS project is the largest of its type in the world, and puts Denmark at the forefront internationally in solving problems such as obesity and learning difficulties. The project also expects to contribute valuable knowledge about preventing obesity-related illnesses in general.

New Nordic Cuisine

One of the project's focus areas will be the development of a new meal concept to be introduced in the national school system and taught to families with young children. The meals will draw heavily on ingredients native to the Nordic region. One of the visions of the research project is to make New Nordic Cuisine the twenty-first century's answer to Mediterranean cuisine.

Professor Arne Astrup will be the director of the new OPUS Centre. The centre, which will set the goals and guidelines for the project, will be housed in the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. In addition to researchers from the faculty, the project will also include researchers from the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, the National Food Institute at the Technical University of Denmark, restaurant Meyers Madhus, Gentofte University Hospital and The Danish School of Education at Århus University.