Open Call for Alternative Sources for High Added Value Food and/or Feed Ingredients

Deadline: 22-Sep-22

The European Commission (EC) is pleased to announce an open call for Alternative Sources for High Added Value Food and/or Feed Ingredients.

The scope of this topic is to deploy the production of improved nutritious, healthy, and environmentally sustainable food and feed ingredients from alternative non-animal sources.

Details

Proposals under this topic should:

• Validate at large scale the processing and production of food ingredients from sustainable alternative sources, demonstrating their clear-cut environmental sustainability gains, and reduced environmental footprint, compared to existing alternatives, as based on peer-reviewed life-cycle analysis.
• Contribute to the EU sustainability targets under the Farm to Fork strategy and the European Green Deal, such as reduction in fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, water and energy ensuring a holistic approach.
• These sources may include e.g., novel crops, plant-based resources, fungi, algae (micro and macro), microorganisms (bacteria, yeast, etc.), biomass side streams or food waste.
• Ensure that food safety criteria are met, and that any circularity approach is achieved in a safe, non-hazardous way, without (re-)connecting epidemiological pathways or introducing pathogen/toxin/pollutant enrichment cycles when involving biogenic materials, show sustainability of production, reduced environmental footprint compared with alternative sources.
• Address consumer understanding, awareness and acceptance, especially related to nutritional profile, safety, taste, functionality, quality and texture of foods / feed palatability based on alternative sources.
• Communicate and disseminate the results by inclusive actions (e.g., mutual learning exercises, interaction with the educational system) seeking the engagement of the civil society (e.g., consumer organisations, special focus groups, NGOs), and awareness on issues related to high resource efficacy, and circularity of biomass, as well as innovation and scientific approaches.
• Benefit from high potential of bio-based innovation, seeking cross-sectorial solutions, and complementarities to the projects under BBI JU, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe.
• Depending on the chosen source, the projects may propose necessary technical options for sustainable intensification of production, e.g., development of new varieties, and/or cultivation practice, in line with all relevant legal EU and national frameworks, to enable future scale-up. Environmental side-benefits should be duly considered, if relevant, e.g., carbon storage potentials, soil health etc.
• A life cycle assessment should be included in the proposals. An assessment of economic and social impacts should be included.
• Present the economic impact on consumers, including the comparison of new products with their current alternatives on the market (if available).
• Apply and/or adapt existing/mature or novel digital technologies, if they are instrumental to achieving the project’s outcomes and scope, especially to ensure high standards of resource efficiency and environmental protection. Applications of digital technologies that should be considered in the scope are among the following areas:
  • chemicals, materials and process design & modelling 
  • (real-time) process monitoring and optimisation (including environmental performance) 
  • predictive maintenance & plant engineering and 
  • data analytics and data management of the processing and production of food ingredients in the scope.
• Quantify and showcase the achievements and challenges of the project to national/regional stakeholders and policymakers, investors and brand owners to foster their support to scale up the industrial capacity to deploy sustainable circular bio-based solutions across Europe.
• Design and perform dissemination activities to targeted stakeholders, including public and relevant industry actors, enabling the replication, market and social acceptance of the large-scale development of bio-based solutions in the processing and production of food ingredients in the scope. Consider the parallel topic HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-R-04 (Proteins from alternative and unconventional sources) to pursue potential synergies and avoid overlap.

Funding Information

The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:

• public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
• cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (lowvalue grant).

Expected Outcomes

Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes, depending on the choice between focus on food or/and feed ingredients:

• Availability of premium (i.e., nutritious, healthy, functional and environmentally sustainable) food ingredients meeting consumers’ expectations, including on economic level.
• Availability of high added value sustainable feed ingredients, ensuring nutritional quality and health and safety profile.
• Rebalanced ratio between animal and plant-based proteins in human consumption, needed for healthy food supply respecting the planetary boundaries.
• Contribution to the sustainable food supply for a growing world population (SDG 2 Zero hunger).
• Increased circularity of biomass resources, and resource efficiency, as confirmed by the LCA assessments, leading to improved EU strategic autonomy via reduction/replacement of imports.
• Public awareness and acceptance of bio-based solutions.
• Support market uptake growth and acceptance of scalable bio-based solutions.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:

• the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions;
• the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States;
• eligible non-EU countries:
  • countries associated to Horizon Europe;
  • low- and middle-income countries.

For more information, visit European Commission.

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