45+Research opportunities
50+Commercial whitespaces
35+Ecosystem support needs

Additional Filters


Key: Cultivated icon Cultivated Fermentation icon Fermentation Plant-based icon Plant-Based
Opportunity Production platform Value chain segment Technology sector End product focus Relevant actor Maturity level Solution category Topic
Mapping animal cell metabolism to optimize media formulation

The cost and environmental impact of cultivated meat are driven by the cell culture media formulation and its conversion efficiency into meat. Metabolic modeling and engineering techniques can aid media…

Cultivated icon Cultivated Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs Cell culture media Cell line development Species-agnostic Academics Industry Startups Commercial Research
Promoting stemness and proliferation in fish cell cultures

Efficient and cost-effective cultivated fish production will require precise optimization to encourage fast proliferation and highly efficient use of inputs while preventing premature differentiation. A variety of strategies can be…

Cultivated icon Cultivated Production R&D Cell culture media Cell line development Seafood Academics Industry Startups Research Science
Incorporating omega-3s into cultivated seafood

Cultivated seafood will need to be supplemented with long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids to be nutritionally equivalent or superior to conventional seafood. However, how these compounds can best be incorporated…

Cultivated icon Cultivated Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs Bioprocess design Cell culture media Cell line development End product formulation & manufacturing Scaffolding Seafood Academics Industry Startups Commercial Research Industry Science
Cultivated meat makerspaces to promote public engagement

Both the cultivated meat industry and interested members of the general public would benefit from the creation of makerspaces focused on cultivated meat. These would be publicly available spaces where…

Cultivated icon Cultivated R&D Workforce Bioprocess design Cell culture media Cell line development Scaffolding Species-agnostic Academics Donors GFI Industry NGO’s Startups Ecosystem Research Science
Co-cultured support cells for cultivated meat

Cultivated meat research focuses primarily on muscle fibers and fat cells. However, other cell types serve functions that are often under appreciated in their relevance to cultivated meat. Co-culture methods…

Cultivated icon Cultivated Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs Bioprocess design Cell culture media Cell line development Seafood-relevant Academics Industry Startups Commercial Research Science
Metabolic modeling for cultivated meat

Academic researchers or consortia consisting of several cultivated meat companies should undertake research aimed at understanding metabolic pathways and fluxes within cultivated meat-relevant cell types. The outputs of this research…

Cultivated icon Cultivated R&D Bioprocess design Cell culture media Cell line development Seafood-relevant Academics Industry Investors Startups Research Science
Understanding uptake and interconversion of omega-3 fatty acids by cultivated fish cells

Although fish are one of the best dietary sources of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (FAs), these compounds are mostly bioaccumulated from a fish’s diet rather than synthesized de novo. Consistent…

Cultivated icon Cultivated R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs Cell culture media Cell line development Host strain development Seafood Academics Industry Startups Commercial Research Science
Scaffolding development for culinary and biomechanical requirements of cultivated seafood

A number of published studies have focused on scaffolds for cultivated meat (see Related Efforts) yet, to our knowledge, no studies have specifically attempted to formulate scaffolds for fish or…

Cultivated icon Cultivated R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs Cell line development Scaffolding Seafood Academics Industry Startups 0 – Complete whitespace Commercial Research Science
Improving efficiency and assessment of adaptation to suspension growth

Improving methods for adapting cells to suspension culture can facilitate cell line development and bioprocess design for cultivated meat.

Cultivated icon Cultivated R&D Bioprocess design Cell line development Seafood-relevant Academics Industry Startups 1 – Inception Research Industry Science
Species-specific genomic studies enabling assay development for regulatory standards and cell line optimization

A suite of assays and genomic knowledge exists for humans and commonly used laboratory species such as mice or fruit flies. However, the same species-specific infrastructure does not exist equally…

Cultivated icon Cultivated R&D Cell line development Seafood-relevant Academics Industry Research Science

Get involved

If you’d like to fund a research project, work on any of these solutions, share information about related efforts that are already underway, or elevate new ideas for advancing the alternative protein industry, we’d love to hear from you!

Swinging lit lightbulb graphic representing gfi's innovation priorities

Explore key innovation priorities

Review commercial whitespaces, research gaps, technological needs, and investment priorities at each stage of the alternative protein value chain.

How we built this

Advancing solutions for alternative proteins executive summary icon

Executive summary

Get an overview of GFI’s Solutions initiative and a summary of key resources.

Advancing solutions for alternative proteins full report icon

Full report

Delve into the full report on the motivation, methodology, rationale, and key findings and recommendations of the Solutions initiative.

Advancing solutions for alternative proteins future wheels analysis icon

Futures wheels analysis

Explore our framework for uncovering second-order or third-order consequences and implications of hypothetical future scenarios to support better decision-making in the present.

Advancing solutions for alternative proteins future-proofing report icon

Future-proofing

Discover key findings from GFI’s premortem analysis of potential threats to the widespread adoption of alternative proteins, including strategies to avoid or mitigate the most pressing risks.