Getting closer to the “Holy Grail” of alternative proteins requires more funding, urges GFI

24 Sep 2021 --- The Good Food Institute (GFI) is awarding US$5 million to boost research into alternative proteins – a “powerful and scalable climate solution” that lacks critical funding. New data from the non-profit reveals that public expenditures on alt protein R&D in 2020 totaled a meager US$55 million. By comparison, public expenditure on clean energy R&D was US$27 billion – 490 times the public investment awarded to alt-protein R&D. 

“Thanks to a small number of generous donors, we do this by funding open-access research that we see as urgent and essential to exist in the public domain,” shares the organization.

“This year through our third annual Competitive Research Grant RFP, we are excited to award nearly US$5 million in total funding to 22 research projects that will get us closer to the holy grail of alt proteins – generating whole cuts of meat and seafood,” it continues.

“Thirteen of these projects are focused on cultivated meat, two are focused on fermentation, and seven are focused on plant-based meat. These projects will take place in eight different countries across four continents.”

Alternative proteins can play a crucial role in this transformation. However, very little public sector funding has been dedicated to alt protein R&D to date. GFI has only been able to fund roughly 15 percent of the project proposals it has received.

Government partnerships with universities and industry, such as India’s efforts to scale its seaweed production for protein, are deemed essential.Securing follow-on funding to continue to train and develop viable research careers in the field is critical to progress, GFI stresses.

Private investment alone can’t solve the climate crisis
As GFI outlines, global scientists, entrepreneurs and engineers are eager to apply their talents to the development of alternative proteins, but many are not able to since relevant training programs have not yet been funded at scale, stresses GFI.

Public funding of open-access research that has real-world applications would ensure that private investments are not spent duplicating foundational R&D efforts. Public funding will also stimulate economic growth, create jobs and provide additional public benefits to food safety and security.

Government partnerships with universities and industry are deemed essential to provide funding and training opportunities to scale a trained technical workforce, underscores GFI.

For instance, the Indian government and industry have already pledged INR ₹6,400,000,000 (US$87 million) to develop the seaweed economy in the country, which GFI has noted presents significant opportunities for the local algal protein industry. 

Since 2019, GFI has funded over US$13 million worth of open-access research on alt-protein research, inclusive of 70 discrete research projects.

“The scientists leading this research are advancing alt protein science, building research consortia, and training students and postdocs to be the industry’s next leaders,” states the organization.

Technical talent may become a bottleneck without training
Notably, sales of plant-based alternatives are soaring, especially in Asia, the US and Europe, with increasing investment in more sophisticated meat alternatives – such as plant-based fillet mignon – as companies grow their toolkit of ingredient solutions with novel proteins, like fungi.

But there are still significant technological challenges preventing delicious, affordable, and nutritious alt proteins from going to market at a global scale.

GFI’s grants program offers essential levers for researchers across a wide variety of fields to help grow their expertise to solve challenges in alt-proteins development and formulation.

Approximately 20 percent of its grantees have not worked directly on alt protein-related research prior to receiving GFI funding, indicating that researchers are able to generate novel ideas in this area as long as funding to pursue these ideas exists.

GFI has already created its own ecosystem for alt-protein R&D, from launching the Collaborative Research Directory and its GFIdeas Community, to establishing chapters of the Alt Protein Project at top-tier international universities. 

“The demand for research funding from the scientific community is there,” states the organization. “Proportional government investment is essential for supplying this demand, accelerating the pace of alt-protein science and more quickly unlocking the suite of positive climate and economic impacts on offer.”

“Governments should be stepping in today to support the science that will transform our food system and help mitigate the impacts of climate change.”

By Benjamin Ferrer