Early Nutrition eAcademy Southeast Asia Erasmus Project

Project Title

Early Nutrition eAcademy Southeast Asia

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Capacity Building in higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics:

Project Summary

Considerable nutritional challenges continue to exist in Southeast Asia (SEA), despite the encouraging economic development. Double burden of malnutrition and obesity, associated with a rapidly increasing burden of diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) continue to coexist in the same populations. This can lead to major adverse consequences for health, performance and productivity, and economic development. Early nutrition and lifestyle during pregnancy and early childhood (the first 1000 days of life after conception) is a major modulating factor of long-term health, performance, and disease risks. Improving the knowledge and practice in early nutrition is particularly important in SEA which is currently coping with the double burden of disease, with high rates of both malnutrition and obesity/diabetes. Therefore, there is a burning need to establish and implement science-based, quality education that widely reaches health care professionals (HCPs e.g. obstetricians/gynaecologists, paediatricians) who can influence early nutrition and lifestyle in their clients. On a daily basis, HCPs in SEA must address a whole range of different aspects which require up to date knowledge and skills for its practical application. e-learning is an effective and sustainable tool to widely reach HCPs with very low barriers. ENeA SEA aims at addressing these issues by offering innovative e-learning, jointly developed by EU, Thai and Malaysian partners, to meet the educational requirements in a first step of Thai and Malaysian doctors in practice in the field. ENeA SEA has produced a dedicated curriculum, targeted e-learning modules in English, Thai and Malay languages and individualized training packages to specifically meet the user’s needs based on automated content matching processes (mass customisation). Most of these modules have been translated into Thai and Malay languages for a wider outreach. Efforts were made to get these modules incorporated into the Thai and Malaysian accreditation system under sustainability measures of this project and the ENeA SEA curriculum has been approved to be the CME activity of the Royal College of Pediatricians of Thailand and parts of the CPD system in Malaysia. Thus, ENeA SEA is suitable for professional sub-specialisation and for integration in pre-and postgraduate study programmes. It will now serve as the basis for future expansion to other HCP groups and other SEA countries.Apart from achieving six e-learning modules in which the contents are customized to the SEA region, the project emphasizes the capacity building for consortium partners. The academic staff of the consortium partners and Distant Learning Expert Board (DLEB) team were trained in the process of curriculum development, e-learning module adaptation, and new module generation. The e-learning equipment has been purchased and used during the project lifetime and will continue to be used after the project ends. Therefore, the partner institutions have built their own transferable capacity in creating the e-learning materials which is very valuable and relevant in higher education settings. In addition, this project has generated the partnership and networking between academic institutions not only in Europe and SEA but also among SEA partners, as well as across various academic disciplines (i.e. academic lecturer, clinician, researcher, DLEB member, dietitian). This partnership will sustain after the project completion through spin-off projects, publications and co-fundings under the sustainability plan.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 930204,8 Eur

Project Coordinator

LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN & Country: DE

Project Partners

• NUTRITION ASSOCIATION OF THAILAND
• MAHIDOL UNIVERSITY
• UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA
• UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA
• PERSATUAN PEMAKANAN MALAYSIA
• UNIVERSITATEA POLITEHNICA DIN BUCURESTI
• UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON