The Nordic alternative protein research ecosystem

Denmark’s leadership in alternative proteins is driven by strong nonprofit support, particularly from the Novo Nordisk Foundation – the largest Nordic funder of alternative protein research and the third-largest in Europe, with over €146 million (1 billion kroner) invested. Other contributors include the Carlsberg Foundation, which has invested €2.8 million (21 million kroner) in alternative protein research, and the Aarhus University Research Foundation (AUFF), which has invested €2 million (15 million kroner). The Danish Government has increased investment in the space, totalling €24 million (179 million kroner) in public funding from 2020 to 2025.

Investment in Denmark, by research funder, 2020-2025

Denmark was the first country in the world to release a national action plan for plant-based foods. The Danish government’s €160 million (over 1 billion kroner) commitment to plant-based foods over nine years is the largest in Europe, and is being distributed by the Plantefonden. This presents a great opportunity for the Danish government to accelerate the momentum being built by the large investments of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, ensuring that public investment matches the scale and ambition of nonprofit-driven innovation. As Denmark’s remaining funding is disbursed, the key challenge and opportunity lies in ensuring that these funds are channelled towards solving the most pressing scientific challenges of the moment and accelerating real breakthroughs for sustainable food systems.

Investment by the Danish government, broken down by research funders, 2020-2025

Finland has made significant investments in alternative protein research in recent years and has seen multiple successful startups spin-out from their public research ecosystem. It is the fourth-largest funder in Europe, and tops the chart for alternative protein R&I funding per capita.

Investment from the top 10 governments funding alternative proteins in Europe, 2020-2025, showing total public funding (excluding nonprofit contributions) and funding per capita.

Business Finland is the major funder in Finland, with the bulk of its funding in the form of major grants to companies like Onego Bio to support their R&I and promote the commercialisation of public research findings into a global competitive advantage. Business Finland has also supported initiatives like RETHINK, a consortium where VTT and the Finnish food industry will develop new plant protein value chains with the utilization of AI and machine learning. Many of Finland’s success stories like Onego Bio and Solar Foods are spinouts from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, demonstrating the importance of a strong scientific community producing open-access research that provides a solid basis for the commercialisation pipeline. 

Whilst the continued support for industry R&D is promising, such as the recent €10 million euro additional funding to expand Valio’s Food 2.0 research program, Finland’s publication output in alternative proteins has seen the slowest growth in the Nordics and has remained relatively stagnant since 2022. It will be essential for Finland to ensure funding is directed towards foundational open-access research to sustain a healthy R&I pipeline and repeat the successes of companies such as Solar Foods.

Investment in Finland, by research funder, 2020-2025

Investment in Finland research category breakdown, 2020-2025.

The majority of Finnish alternative protein investment has gone to cross-cutting research, specifically to support cellular agriculture R&I. A recent action plan by VTT Technical Research Centre Finland, Natural Resources Institute Finland, and the University of Helsinki outlines a roadmap for Finland to become a world leader in cellular agriculture.

Norway is the fifth-largest European funder of alternative protein R&I, and ranks second per capita, but its funding trajectory has been quite inconsistent. Norway was the leading public funder in Europe from 2020 to 2022, driven by significant investments from the Research Council of Norway and additional support from the Foundation for Research Levy on Agricultural Products.

After this early peak, funding dropped sharply between 2022 and 2024, before appearing to pick up again in 2025. Norway, therefore, still holds a very strong position on a per-capita basis, but it remains to be seen whether this reflects a sustained national funding priority or the effect of a few large one-off calls. Investment decisions made over the coming years will determine whether Norway maintains its strong per-capita position or gradually falls behind countries with more consistent annual funding.

Investment in Norway, by research funder, 2020-2025.

Investment in Norway research category breakdown, 2020-2025.

Plant-based research makes up more than half of tracked funding – approximately €31 million of the €53 million total – in Norway. Major projects such as GreenPlantFood indicate a strong focus on Norwegian and Nordic raw materials, including peas, faba beans, oats, and barley, as well as green processing technologies, ingredient functionality, sidestream use, and food industry applications.

Fermentation has seen almost €10.5 million of investment in Norway. The bulk of this has gone to the Norwegian Bioprocessing & Fermentation Centre and the Centre for Industrial Biotechnology – biotechnology centres focused on fermentation.

Cross-cutting and cultivated meat funding can partly be seen as one combined research area as Norway’s growing cellular agriculture community often groups precision fermentation and cultivated meat under the same umbrella. Nofima’s Precision Food Production initiative is a good example, spanning precision fermentation, cultivated meat, bioreactors, growth factors, process monitoring, and new food technologies. Food4Cells, on the other hand, is a major project focusing exclusively on cultivated meat and will run from 2025 until 2027.

Sweden performs strongly in the European context, ranking sixth for alternative protein R&I investment, but lags behind Denmark and Finland in the region despite its larger economy (by nominal GDP).

Investment in Sweden, by research funder, 2020-2025.

The Swedish funding landscape is mostly focused on the plant-based field. Fermentation funding has been lower and more intermittent, but Sweden has made some relevant investments in fungal and microbial protein. This includes projects such as the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) producing fungal protein and lipids from lignocellulose, with a grant of almost 6 million krona (€551 000), and Swedish participation in the €1.5 million Eurostars-backed Revo Foods–Mycorena project to develop 3D-printable mycoprotein for whole-cut alternative seafood. 

The first Swedish investments in cultivated meat were made in 2024 by the Swedish Research Council, with grants of 2 million krona (€184 000) for Curve to optimise the cell culture of an industrial-scale bioreactor for animal cell cultivation and 700,000 krona (€64 000) for EY to examine the role and effects of cultivated meat across a circular value chain.

Investment from Sweden, broken down by alternative protein type, over the period 2020-2025.

Plant-based research is the most established of the three alternative protein fields. Plant-based publications accounted for 66% of alternative protein publications in the years 2020-2025, highlighting the field’s relative maturity compared with fermentation and cultivated meat. This is further reflected in the broader diversity of institutions engaging in plant-based research, demonstrating a more well-developed ecosystem. This extensive distribution of hubs suggests that plant-based science has transitioned from being an emerging discipline to a more mainstream research focus within food science and biotechnology faculties across the region. Half of the research institutes in the top 10 of leading European plant-based research organisations are Nordic.

Leading institutions for plant-based protein research in Europe on the basis of unique publications in the period 2020-2025.

Fermentation has rapidly been gaining traction as a transformative technology in recent years, representing 15% of European alternative protein publications between 2020 and 2025. The strong funding landscape for fermentation in the Nordics aligns with the academic research activity in this space. Denmark is a clear leader, with DTU serving as the largest and most prominent research institution driving innovation in precision fermentation and biomass fermentation. Sweden also comes out strongly, with the University of Boras housing the Biotechnology research group at the Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery. While fermentation research is growing, it remains concentrated within a few key specialised hubs.

Leading institutions and companies for fermentation-made protein and ingredients research in Europe on the basis of unique publications in the period 2020-2025.

Cultivated meat remains the youngest and least widespread of the three fields, with 9% of European alternative protein publications in the years 2020-2025

Aarhus University stands out as a leader in the space and serves as a critical research hub for cultivated meat in both the Nordics and Europe, with 26 unique publications Aarhus University has the third largest output in cultivated meat publications in Europe. In Finland, the University of Helsinki is emerging as a strong player with a specialisation in life cycle assessments (LCAs), which assess the projected environmental impacts of cultivated meat when compared to conventional agriculture. In Norway, Nofima is at the forefront of exploring cultivated meat production, contributing significantly to the field’s development in the region and participating in or leading several large-scale projects.

The relatively small number of research centres working on cultivated meat suggests a heavy reliance on specialised research groups, reinforcing the field’s early-stage nature. Funding for cultivated meat-specific research remains low across the region, but several initiatives do include both cultivated meat and precision fermentation within their scope, such as the CellFood Hub in Denmark and the ARRIVAL project in Norway.

Leading institutions and companies for cultivated meat and seafood research in Europe on the basis of unique publications in the period 2020-2025.