Purpose

Whilst alternative proteins are beginning to gain traction in industry and in the media, this is still very much a nascent and neglected field, especially in academia. There are many technical bottlenecks preventing the scale-up of alternative protein technologies, and the field would benefit hugely from more open-access academic research.

The scale-up and widespread adoption of these technologies is a multidisciplinary problem, requiring a variety of experts such as bio-scientists, engineers, computer scientists, policymakers, economists and food system scientists. If we are to realise the enormous potential of the alternative protein field in order to substantially reduce or eliminate conventional meat production, we will need additional talent and open-source research in all relevant areas to overcome these bottlenecks.

There are few established talent pipelines into the industry, which is an issue in the private sector as the existing start-ups scale and recruit more employees. Additionally, there is indication of widespread student interest in establishing such pipelines, which is of significance when reaching out to stakeholder who have the potential to pivot their efforts towards this field. 

The purpose of this programme is to take people with an interest in alternative proteins and help them to gain a more profound  understanding of the scientific and sociopolitical challenges in the field. From the programme run by The Cambridge Alt Protein Project in early 2022, it became apparent that engagement with alternative protein material over multiple weeks results in participants taking tangible steps to direct their research or career towards this area. In addition, this programme serves as an introduction for members looking to join our chapter and to accumulate knowledge about student interest in alternative protein didactics in order to establish official faculty-taught courses at our partner universities in the midterm.

This programme utilises a lot of the material from the Good Food Institute’s MOOC and Curriculum Repository. The original curriculum of this programme was created by Will Saunter, The Cambridge Alt Protein Project. This version was optimised for the purposes of The EIT Food Alt Protein Project by Adrian Hirt.