The latest Horizon Europe funding call is a treasure trove of opportunities for sustainable protein researchers.

The European Commission has just announced the flagship programme’s 2023-2024 work programme, with huge potential for scientists looking for ways of developing plant-based, cultivated meat and fermentation based foods capable of competing with conventional meat, seafood and dairy. 

There are three calls which relate specifically to sustainable proteins, but I’ve dived deep into the work programme and have found dozens of others relevant to researchers keen to unlock the environmental potential of these foods.

Open science and collaborative research

Horizon Europe is the EU’s €95.5 billion research and innovation funding programme, aiming to tackle climate change, promote scientific excellence and boost the continent’s international competitiveness.

With its strong focus on open science – enabling results to be made available to all – and on large, multi-partner research collaborations capable of tackling a vast range of challenges, the programme is ideally suited to sustainable protein researchers, while the large budgets involved mean the scale of what can be achieved is hugely impressive.

My colleagues at the Good Food Institute Europe have been making the case for sustainable proteins to be represented in Horizon Europe, and the Commission must be applauded for including three specific calls in the latest work package: 

• Cultured meat and cultured seafood – state of play and future prospects in the EU (HORIZON-CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01-13) aims to reduce the high costs of infrastructure and raw materials needed for cultivated meat, scale up in a cost-effective way and evaluate and improve the economic viability and sustainability of this new food. 
• Microbiome for flavour and texture in the organoleptic dietary shift (HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-01-9) includes creating fermentation-based ingredients to improve the flavours and textures of plant-based meat, dairy and fish products, piloting new precision fermentation techniques and developing new biomass production methods.
• Impact of the development of novel foods based on alternative sources of proteins (HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-01-7) will assess the environmental potential of foods including algae-based products and microbial proteins, as well as production cost and consumer acceptance.

I would encourage anyone involved in the sustainable protein field, or other researchers interested in getting involved, to apply for these calls.  

Diving deep into Horizon Europe

But the programme includes many other calls which, while not flagged as specifically relating to sustainable proteins, are strongly applicable.

For example, researchers wanting to make a contribution to developing new crops or ingredients for plant-based proteins may be interested in these: 

• New healthy and sustainable food products and processes  (HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-01-2), which is relevant to researchers focusing on developing nutritious new plant-based ingredients.
• Crop wild relatives for sustainable agriculture (HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01-13), Promoting minor crops in farming systems (HORIZON-CL6-2024-BIODIV-02-3-two-stage) and Improving yields in organic cropping systems (HORIZON-CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01-3), which could focus on developing crops with improved functionality as raw materials for sustainable proteins.
• Valorisation of ecosystem services provided by legume crops (HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01-16), which could explore growing legumes as ingredients for plant-based foods.
• Regenerative ocean farming in the Baltic Sea region (European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Funds call), which is relevant to anyone looking at producing sustainable algae as an ingredient to improve the flavour and nutritional quality of alternative seafood products.

And scientists interested in developing fermentation based foods should look into these calls:

• Green hydrogen as feedstock in innovative production routes (HORIZON-CL4-2024-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-34) and Turning CO2 from waste to feedstock (HORIZON-CL4-2024-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-35), which could involve upcycling these gases as a feed for biomass fermentation.
• From silos to diversity – small-scale bio-based demonstration pilots (HORIZON-CL6-2024-CircBio-02-6-two-stage), which will enable researchers to focus on using waste products in plant-based or fermentation-made protein production.
• Broadening the spectrum of enzymes and microbial hosts in industrial biotechnology (HORIZON-CL6-2023-CircBio-01-5), which aims to fill knowledge gaps by developing microorganisms which could be used to produce sustainable proteins, including through addressing taste and texture.
• Non-plant biomass feedstock for industrial applications: technologies and processes to convert non-lignocellulosic biomass and waste into bio-based chemicals, materials and products, improving the cascading valorisation of biomass (HORIZON-CL6-2023-CircBio-02-3-two-stage), which could explore the use of fermentation to upcycle waste products into nutritious and sustainable food.
• Targeting marine extremophiles for sourcing novel enzymes, drugs, metabolites and chemicals (HORIZON-CL6-2024-CircBio-01-10), which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers interested in the potential of organisms capable of living in some of the world’s most extreme conditions. These extremophiles are already being used by startups such as Nature’s Fynd, who produce protein from fungi found in a thermal spring in Yellowstone National Park.

These are just a few examples, but I strongly recommend sustainable protein researchers delve into all six Horizon Europe clusters to see if there are others that may suit their focus.

Europe is home to many of the world’s leading universities and scientists from across the relevant disciplines – from biochemists to electrical engineers, and from agricultural engineers to synthetic biologists. 

It will take all of this expertise for the continent to compete with other regions like the United States and Singapore in the growing sustainable protein field, and to unleash the huge environmental and public health benefits of these foods. 

With a total budget of €12.4 billion this year, just imagine what could be achieved if our scientists tapped into the extraordinary potential of the Horizon Europe programme.

Check out our resources if you’re interested in applying for these calls: 

• If you’re looking for research ideas, our Advancing Solutions initiative highlights high-priority knowledge gaps – with a more commercial, EU-focused version here.
• Individuals can use our collaborative researcher directory, while groups can use our research labs database, to connect with people interested in getting involved in the field. The European Commission’s partner finding tool offers a similar resource. 
• Researchers previously funded by GFI can be found on our grantee web pages, while our company database provides information about potential private sector partners.
• You can find other relevant opportunities in our research funding database or see what projects are already being funded on our research grants tracker. 
• GFI is often able to support strong research consortia addressing our highest priority research areas, by acting as project advisors and sharing letters of support – please get in touch for more information.

Author

Seren Kell Head of SciTech

Seren works with scientists to develop, fund and promote open-source research on sustainable proteins.