Three research projects launched for NGF call on Cellular Agriculture

NWO and the National Growth Fund’s Cellular Agriculture (CA) programme are allocating €4.1 million to three projects under the ‘Cellular Agriculture’ call. This funding will enable cost reduction and scaling up, specifically in the research areas of precision fermentation and cultivated meat.

Cellular Agriculture (CA) is a promising new technology for producing animal products using animal cells and microorganisms, without the need for live animals. It offers prospects for significant economic development, reduced environmental impact, a smaller ecological footprint, and improved animal welfare. Cells are cultivated in bioreactors and then structured into meat or used as ingredients to enhance the taste and texture of meat alternatives. Animal proteins or other molecules can also be produced by specifically modified microorganisms using precision fermentation.

Assigned projects

Lead applicant: Dr. Joshua Flack - TU Delft

Co-applicants: TU Delft - Dr. Cees Haringa, Prof. Jack Pronk, Dr. Marieke Klijn, Dr. Marcel Vieira-Lara, Prof. Marcel Ottens, Dr. Britte Bouchaut.

Consortium partners: Livestock Labs, Pluricells, Roslin Technologies, Joe’s Future Food, Opo Bio, Re:meat (Curve Biotech), Umami Meats, Cell4Food, Bruno Cell, Fishway, Cultivate at Scale, Cellular Agriculture UK, Tech4Meat, Qorium, TU Denmark Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Tufts University School of Engineering, Imperial College London, New Harvest.

Cultivated meat has the potential to revolutionise protein production with sustainable and ethical alternatives to livestock farming. However, commercial viability is currently limited by the lack of suitable cell lines for industrial production. In UP-CELL, we combine cell engineering with detailed computational models to understand and control cell behaviour for large-scale, cost-effective cell culture. We are developing a toolkit to modify various cell types from different animal species and demonstrate its effectiveness with industrial processes for cultivated meat and fish. This will accelerate the path to market introduction of these technologies.

Lead applicant: Dr. David Kilian - MERLN Institute, Maastricht University

Co-applicants: Dr. Olaf Brouwers - Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Dr. Antoinette Kazbar - Wageningen University & Research, Dr. Lorenzo Moroni - Maastricht University, Dr. Matt Baker - Maastricht University.

Consortium partners: CHILL, IamFluidics B.V., Seaweedland (Iceventures BV).

Cellular agriculture makes it possible to produce real meat from animal cells without the need for livestock farming. In this project, we combine expertise from biotechnology, cell biology, and materials research to develop a more sustainable and healthier alternative to meat. We are scaling up the production of building blocks for muscle and fat tissue and using natural raw materials such as seaweed and microalgae to enhance nutritional value. These materials are further developed in bioreactors, where they grow into full-fledged meat cuts with a realistic structure and minimal environmental and climate impact.

Lead applicant: Prof. Dr. Arthur Ram, Leiden University

Co-applicants: Miaomiao Zhou – Avans University of Applied Sciences, Dr. Laura Claret Fernández - HAN BioCentre, Dr. Christof Francke - HAN BioCentre.

Consortium partners: BioscienZ, Those Vegan Cowboys, Biotechnology Fermentation Facility (BFF).

This project focuses on establishing a new bioprocess using a non-model fungus for heterologous milk protein expression from grass. This partnership covers the entire process chain: from strain design (Leiden University, Avans) and laboratory-scale fermentation (HAN BioCentre, BioscienZ) to process integration and validation (HBC, BioscienZ, Those Vegan Cowboys, BFF). All consortium partners will collaborate and learn from each other across all work packages. The complementary expertise of all partners will ensure the successful development of this new bioprocess from start to finish.

About the National Growth Fund programme on Cellular Agriculture

This Call for proposals was developed in collaboration with Cellular Agriculture Netherlands Foundation and is part of the National Growth Fund programme on Cellular Agriculture. The programme aims to train sufficient qualified personnel, develop fundamental and applied knowledge, and provide scaling-up facilities for businesses. All of this is intended to firmly establish the Netherlands as an international hub for business, leadership, and entrepreneurship in this form of food production. In 2023, the proposal for Cellular Agriculture received an allocation of €60 million from the National Growth Fund.

Programmes for the National Growth Fund

NWO implements thematic programmes for research, knowledge development, and innovation funded by the National Growth Fund. The results of these programmes are applicable in innovations and organisations, thereby contributing to the sustainable earning capacity and broad prosperity of the Netherlands. The programmes involve collaboration among parties throughout the entire knowledge chain, both public and private.

• Biology
• Life sciences
• Environmental science
• Natural sciences and engineering
• Technical sciences