The Good Food Institute Europe awards research grants to propel alternative protein innovation in 2025

The Good Food Institute Europe (GFI Europe) has unveiled its 2025 research grant recipients, underscoring the region’s leadership in alternative protein innovation. This year’s program, which began in 2019, aims to advance open-access research, foster talent in food innovation, and address critical technical hurdles in plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-derived foods.

Recent data highlights Europe’s rapid growth in alternative protein research. In 2023, more than a quarter of global academic studies in the field—472 publications—originated in Europe, compared to just 19 in 2010. Public and philanthropic investment has reached a record €290 million, reflecting increased support for the sector.

Seven of the 14 projects selected for GFI’s 2025 grants will be conducted at European institutions or companies. These initiatives were chosen through a rigorous review process after requests for proposals (RFPs) targeting three key areas of alternative protein production.

Efforts to reduce food waste and utilize sidestreams from food manufacturing are central to this category. Researchers aim to optimize environmentally friendly, cost-effective processing methods to turn byproducts into high-quality protein ingredients. Dr Mehdi Abdollahi, based in Sweden and an Associate Professor at Chalmers University, is targeting wheat bran, a byproduct of flour milling, as a feedstock for biomass fermentation. His project will identify suitable microorganisms for upcycling this sidestream, develop processes for biomass fermentation, and assess the scalability and economic feasibility of this approach.

In Germany, Dr Petra Först, a Professor at the Technical University of Munich, is recovering underused albumin sidestreams from protein crops such as peas. Her work aims to unlock the potential of this protein-rich byproduct for plant-based food applications. Similarly, in Spain, Dr Carolina González Ferrero, Head of Novel Food Ingredients at the National Centre for Food Technology and Safety, is addressing the challenge of transforming sunflower meal—a nutrient-rich byproduct of sunflower oil production—into high-protein ingredients suitable for human consumption. Her project involves developing new extraction techniques to improve digestibility and taste while assessing the economic feasibility of scaling these methods.

Advancing downstream processing is crucial to improving the scalability of fermentation technologies. Dr Antoinette Kazbar, based in the Netherlands at Wageningen University, is refining processes to use underutilized yeast species for producing heme, a key ingredient that enhances the flavor and texture of plant-based meat. In Ireland, Dr Ashkan Madadlou, a Senior Lecturer at University College Cork, is developing methods to improve the efficiency of extracting fermentation-derived ingredients. His work aims to reduce waste and improve the sustainability of these processes.

Another area of focus is optimizing hydrolysates for cultivated meat production. Dr Jake Bell, a Senior Scientist at Multus Biotechnology in the UK, is employing metabolomics, cell biology, and machine learning to evaluate how hydrolysates affect the growth, health, and sensory properties of beef cell lines. In Italy, Dr Alberta Pinnola, an Associate Professor at the University of Pavia, is developing methods to repurpose spent cell culture media as feedstock for amino-acid-rich microalgae, thereby improving the circularity and reducing the environmental footprint of cultivated meat production.

These research projects are poised to deliver valuable insights and technological advancements that address significant barriers to alternative protein adoption. By fostering collaboration between academia and industry, GFI Europe’s grants aim to ensure that scientific breakthroughs translate into practical, scalable solutions.