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

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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
Optimizing fat profiles for nutritional and sensory properties

Because alternative meat’s fat content and fatty acid profile can be more easily controlled than conventional meat’s, there is an opportunity to alter fat content for nutritional benefits. Additional research…

Cultivated icon Cultivated Fermentation icon Fermentation Plant-based icon Plant-Based End Products Production R&D Cell culture media End product formulation & manufacturing Target molecule selection Seafood-relevant Academics Industry Startups Commercial Research Science
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
Cost-effective sterility controls for cultivated meat

Meticulous attention to sterility controls throughout cultivated meat production is essential to optimize food safety, but the cost of biopharmaceutical-based sterility—the current standard for cell-based processes—is incongruent with large-scale food…

Cultivated icon Cultivated Production Bioprocess design Cell culture media End product formulation & manufacturing Species-agnostic Industry Policymakers Startups Ecosystem Research Industry Policy Science
B2B media development company

The cultivated meat industry needs dedicated suppliers of low-cost, food-grade cell culture media to reduce cultivated meat production costs. Close collaboration between the customer and supplier will be required in…

Cultivated icon Cultivated R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs Cell culture media Seafood-relevant Industry Investors Startups Commercial Research
Animal-free, non-recombinant albumin and transferrin for cultivated meat

The identification of non-animal, non-recombinant proteins with similar functionality to serum albumin and transferrin will lead to major cost reductions in cell culture media development, facilitating progress toward achieving price…

Cultivated icon Cultivated Plant-based icon Plant-Based Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs Cell culture media Crop development Target molecule selection Species-agnostic Academics Industry Investors Startups Commercial Research Industry 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
B2B growth factors for proliferation

There is a need for a supplier of low-cost growth factors produced without the use of animals to support the proliferation phase of cultivated meat production. The cost of growth…

Cultivated icon Cultivated R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs Cell culture media Seafood-relevant Industry Startups Commercial 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

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!

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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

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Executive summary

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

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Full report

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

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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.

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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.