Dr Abigail Pickard from the University of Edinburgh has been awarded seed funding from the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network

Selective eating, particularly in neurodivergent children, results in significant challenges for families, impacting nutritional intake, social interactions, and overall well-being. Despite the prevalence of these issues, there is limited support available that combines academic research insights with practical knowledge from families and charities. The requested seed funding will be used to organise a series of food-based workshops adapted for neurodivergent children, run in close collaboration with Edinburgh Community Food, a leading local food charity. Following the workshops, parents will be invited to share their experiences and challenges of selective eating in children through innovative photo-elicitation methods. The collaboration with charities and parents will act as a vital first step towards establishing the formal TAStE–PaCT (Trajectories of Avoidant and SelecTive Eating-Parents and Charities Together). This project will plant the seed towards collaboratively co-creating future research proposals and intervention strategies to address selective eating behaviour trajectories in neurodivergent groups.