Two UK government funding bodies — the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Innovate UK — have announced a £15 million investment into a new innovation centre for plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-derived foods.
The National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC), which will be hosted at the University of Leeds, will also receive £23 million of investment from public and private sector partners. The centre will be co-led with the James Hutton Institute, the University of Sheffield, and Imperial College London.
“Our mission is to be an ‘innovation enabler’ for rapidly evolving alternative protein industries”
At NAPIC, over 30 interdisciplinary researchers and 120 international partners will develop new alternative protein products and ingredients, along with investigating how they can be incorporated into consumers’ diets. Working with businesses, academia, regulators, and investors, the researchers will focus on four key pillars:
- Produce — Developing alternative protein products with optimal functional, sensory, and nutritional properties.
- Process — Accelerating the scaling of cultivated meat and precision fermentation with AI-guided models.
- Perform — Ensuring the products meet consumer expectations and are safe.
- People — Improving the affordability, accessibility, and acceptability of alternative proteins.
“A truly pan-UK centre”
According to GFI Europe, the £15 million in funding takes the UK government’s total investment in alternative proteins to over £91 million, demonstrating a commitment to safe and healthy alternative foods. Earlier this year, the government invested £12 million into the Microbial Food Hub, a research centre focused on fermentation-based foods, and granted £500,000 to a cultivated meat project.
In 2023, another £12 million of government funding was invested in the Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub (CARMA), which aims to help British companies and scientists produce cultivated meat at scale. Ministers also indicated last year that they were looking to accelerate the regulatory approval of cultivated meat.
“It is welcome to see the UK government making another significant investment in alternative proteins, bringing together scientific and business experts to accelerate the development of foods that can help boost our food security and create new green jobs,” said Linus Pardoe, UK policy manager at GFI Europe.
“I am incredibly thankful to UKRI for recognising the importance of alternative proteins for achieving net zero while addressing protein security, equity, and planetary health goals,” added Professor Anwesha Sarkar, project leader for NAPIC and director of research and innovation at the University of Leeds’ School of Food Science and Nutrition. “NAPIC is a truly pan-UK centre with global reach and our mission is to be an ‘innovation enabler’ for rapidly evolving alternative protein industries, delivering a universally healthy, acceptable, accessible, eco-friendly food system by harnessing the UK’s world-class science.”
