The World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations’ specialized agency responsible for international public health, has announced a special consultation on biofortified crops to be held on April 5-8, 2016 in New York City. Co-convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Sackler Institute of Nutrition Science, the gathering will focus on “staple crops biofortified with increased micronutrient content for improving vitamin and mineral status in populations.” WHO expects that the results of the consultation will inform its work to develop global guidelines on fortification of staple foods with vitamins and minerals as a public health strategy.

In preparation for the event, WHO has issued a call for authors who are interested in preparing review papers related to various aspects of biofortified staple crops, such as breeding, consumption, adoption, and bioavailability, among others. Researchers working independently or as teams can submit their letters of interest by sending an email to WHO at nutrition@who.int no later than July 31, 2015. WHO will provide financial support for selected authors following its standard procedures for completing this work. Commissioned authors will be expected to present their work at the consultation in New York, and peer-reviewed papers will be published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Science.

More information on the call for authors is available here.