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QuaLiFY (Quantify Life – Feed Yourself) was a two-year FP7 collaborative project targeted at SMEs which aimed to exploit results of FP6 and FP7 projects in the area of personalised dietary advice.

Together with several research institutes, 12 European SMEs were leading the QuaLiFY project. They created a shared IT infrastructure, using results from previous EU-funded projects on food composition, food intake, and the relationships between who we are (genotype, phenotype) and what we eat (nutritional status). The aim was to improve existing, and facilitate new, services for personalised dietary advice delivered through mobile apps.

Most of us know what to do: “eat less and exercise more”. Yet, public health guidelines have little impact on the behaviour of most Europeans. A promising alternative is personalised dietary advice. QuaLiFY strengthened innovation in this sector, provided new tools for dieticians and, thus, empowered individuals to make decisions about their health and take responsibility for the outcomes.

To achieve these goals, QuaLiFY was taking a holistic approach; existing personalised dietary advice products and services have been identified, alongside resources underpinning potential dietary advice. These were linked through a common IT-platform, developed within the project, providing access to validated scientific data and related information via mobile phone apps and similar user-friendly products. Dieticians working with obese children, children with eating disorders, and type 2 (pre-) diabetics evaluated these products and services before they were launched into the wider market. Collaborative business models were established for the various services and products to encourage other SMEs in these sectors to capitalise on accessible food-related information and a shared IT-infrastructure.

The project, coordinated by RTD Services Vienna (RTDS), consisted of 16 partners, 12 of which were SMEs specialised in various aspects of IT supported personalized dietary advice.

RTDS was the project coordinator as well as work package leader for Dissemination & Exploitation.

Website: www.qualify-fp7.eu