Brussels, BE/Milan, IT – The Medical Nutrition International Industry (MNI) is thrilled to announce the winner of the 2024 MNI Grant, an award designed to support and inspire high quality national initiatives and/or research projects for optimal nutritional care. The winner – associate professor Sandra Einarsson from the Department of Food, Nutrition and Culinary Science at Umeå University, Sweden – was announced during the opening ceremony of the prestigious ESPEN Congress, held in Milan, Italy on 7 September 2024.
This year, the grant amount has been increased to €40,000, up from the previous €30,000, reflecting the MNI’s commitment to fostering impactful research and innovation in the field. The grant has attracted a remarkable 20 project proposals from 17 countries globally, highlighting a diverse range of initiatives dedicated to improving medical nutrition practices. The selection process was conducted in collaboration with ESPEN, ensuring a rigorous evaluation.
For the 16th edition of the MNI Grant, MNI is pleased to award the initiative titled “Taking the GLIM[1] Framework from Research into Clinical Practice: A Swedish Initiative.” This work, led by Sandra Einarsson from Umeå University, Sweden, focuses on developing a combined physical-online programme for dietitians to promote the use of muscle mass assessment in clinical practice. Sandra Einarsson stated: “With this research project, we aim to create better conditions for dietitians to assess muscle mass in clinical practice and, thus, enable all five criteria of GLIM to be properly assessed. With the valuable support from the MNI Grant, this study has great potential to directly impact the quality of nutritional care by facilitating the implementation of evidence-based recommendations into clinical practice. By securing the quality of the performance of diagnosing malnutrition, we believe this research project will contribute to a more effective use of healthcare resources. We also believe that this work will enable progress towards a more equal nutritional care where patients with malnutrition are properly diagnosed, treated, and monitored. Therefore, on behalf of the whole research team, it is a great honour and opportunity to be awarded the MNI Grant for 2024.”
The award was consigned by MNI President, Angelika Müller: “We are delighted to award the MNI Grant 2024 to Sandra Einarsson from Umeå University in Sweden. Announcing the winner at the ESPEN Congress underscores the significance of this initiative in advancing medical nutrition. The increased grant amount demonstrates our dedication to supporting pioneering research and practice. As 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of MNI, we aim to maintain this elevated grant amount for the next MNI Grant and invite others to apply.”
For further details regarding the MNI Grant and the high-level applications received, please see below
[1] Global Leadership Innitiative on Malnutrition
- Nutrition therapy quality assessment: app monitoring – endorsed by BRASPEN
- Tackling Malnutrition across the Care Continuum – Integrated Nutritional care at Local Health Units – building a frame for Portuguese NHS – endorsed by APNEP
- Vit4Recovery: Vitamin status in patients with head and neck cancer – endorsed by NESPEN
- Managing malnutrition in respiratory disease from hospital-to-home: Patients don’t have time to waste – endorsed by AuSPEN
- NutriChoice: an online decision aid for adults with (risk of) malnutrition – endorsed by NESPEN
- Awareness and Establishment of Clinical Nutrition Nurse Specialists and Home PN Centre’s in Melbourne, Australia – endorsed by BAPEN
- Enhancing Malnutrition Awareness and Screening in Community Healthcare: A Comprehensive Intervention for General Practitioners and Primary Care – endorsed by BAPEN
- Specialist Oncology Training for Dietitians: Championing a New International Standard (SpOT-RD) – endorsed by IRSPEN
- Digital Nutrition Monitoring and consulting system for Home – based clinical nutrition – endorsed by LASPEN
- Accessible Cancer Information for Patients: SENPE’s Initiative – endorsed by SENPEN
- Screening, Assessment, Diagnosis and Treatment of Disease Related Malnutrition in a Telemedical Supported Treatment Pathway for Chronic Wounds – endorsed by AKE
- Relentless Effort in Raising Awareness: From 2012 MNI Grant to significant milestones New legislation on mandatory nutritional screening in public hospitals – endorsed by GrESPEN
- Empowering primary care physicians in using principles of advanced nutritional care in clinical practice – endorsed by SZKP
- Universal Community-Based Pictorial Dietary Diversity Score – endorsed by IAPEN
- Monitoring medical nutrition therapy using a unified cloud-based platform in centers participating in Nutrition Day in Argentina. (METANUTRICmonitor) – endorsed by AANEP
- Consequences of adult malnutrition and admission micronutrient status on peri-operative outcomes in a tertiary hospital in South Africa – endorsed by SASPEN
- Proposal for Improving Knowledge and Skills on Delivering Lifestyle Modification Advice for Preventing Non-Communicable Diseases among Primary Care Clinic Staff in Sri Lanka – endorsed by SLMNA
- Integrated interventions targeting enteric viruses’ contamination of water to reduce childhood malnutrition in rural Cameroon Subtitle: Reducing exposure to enteric viruses in the home environment to promote child nutrition – endorsed by SASPEN
- Diagnosing metabolic disorder-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in a large MRI-based screening program: gateway to combined lifestyle intervention and weight loss. – endorsed by NESPEN
