A researcher at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Population Health has been awarded almost £35,000 (DKK 300,000).
The prestigious European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) and the Novo Nordisk Foundation named Dr I Gusti Ngurah Edi Putra the winner of the New Investigator Award in Public Health. This is one of four awards recognising European early career researchers with innovative research projects.
The EASO–Novo Nordisk Foundation New Investigator Awards recognise outstanding early-career researchers in obesity-related fields. They support innovative projects across four areas: basic science, clinical research, childhood obesity, and public health. The awards provide funding to help researchers advance their work and contribute to understanding, preventing, and treating obesity. In the public health category, Dr Putra will investigate public support for an emerging public health policy in Europe and assess its potential impact in shaping population-level diets and obesity.
Dr Putra said: “I am very honoured to be named the winner of the New Investigator Award in Public Health from the EASO–Novo Nordisk Foundation. This research grant provides an exciting opportunity to lead a new international project, collaborating with researchers from several European countries to explore public support for an emerging public health policy aimed at improving the food environment, and its potential impact on population-level diets and obesity prevention.”
Dr Putra is a Lecturer in the Appetite and Obesity Group and a Research Associate (NIHR DSE Fellow) in the NCD Prevention and Food Policy Modelling Group. With a background in quantitative public health research, his current work focuses on understanding the effectiveness of food labelling policies (e.g., menu labelling) and estimating the long-term population-level health and economic impacts of obesity-related public health policies (e.g., taxation, front-of-package nutrition labelling).
The other recipients of the award are; Sara E. Stinson (Childhood Obesity), Oslo University Hospital, Norway, Nele Steenackers (Clinical Research), Maastricht University, Netherlands, and Jens Lund (Basic Science), University of Copenhagen.
The awards will be presented at the 33rd European Congress on Obesity (#ECO2026), 12-15 May 2026 in Istanbul, Turkey, where delegates will have the opportunity to hear a plenary lecture from the Obesity Prize for Excellence winner and presentations from the New Investigator Award winners.
For more information about the New Investigator Awards, visit https://easo.org/about-easo/easo-nnf-prize-and-awards/.