The Alt Protein Project

One of the largest bottlenecks in the alternative protein field is the relative lack of scientists and engineers who can advance plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-enabled meat, egg, and dairy products. The Alt Protein Project works to create and support alternative protein courses, tracks, and programs. Student leaders work with GFI experts and university faculty to design course materials and advocate for curriculum development.

Student leaders from the Johns Hopkins Alt Protein Project designed a course dedicated to Future Food Manufacturing. In addition to instruction in cutting-edge engineering and food science, student leaders forged partnerships with alternative protein companies to give all class participants practical experience with tackling a real-world obstacle.

The alternative protein field needs more scientists driving open-access academic research for better alternatives to conventional meat, egg, and dairy products. Student leaders play a pivotal role in catalyzing open-access research by inspiring academic collaborations, designing research proposals, laying the foundation for research centers and consortia, keeping labs abreast of new funding opportunities, and pursuing their own lines of scientific inquiry.

Dr. Stephanie Kawecki co-founded the Alt Protein Project at UCLA when she was pursuing her Ph.D, having been driven to use her training in bioengineering to help fix one of the most glaring problems she saw in the food system around her since the beginning of her scientific career. She approached Dr. Amy Rowat and campaigned for the inclusion of cultivated meat in her research portfolio. Her student advocacy opened the door to Dr. Rowat becoming a GFI grantee and securing significant follow-on funding from the USDA and NSF.

The Alt Protein Project empowers student entrepreneurs to start alternative protein companies that address key commercial white spaces whose solutions will help propel the industry forward. Students can do this in a myriad of ways—by working with alternative protein experts to analyze white space opportunities and develop product prototypes, mobilizing their peers through regional innovation challenges, building alternative protein tracks in student accelerators, and more!

Student leaders at the NMBU Alt Protein Project saw an absence of a physical space that would allow professors, companies, and students to learn, develop, and test their food products. They worked within their university to bring their Food Pilot Plant to reality and ensured alternative proteins feature prominently in its industrial and social output.

The Alt Protein Project organizes events and conferences to stimulate discussion, cultivate new ideas, and get people excited about opportunities in alternative proteins. Generating enthusiasm on campus means that more students can take advantage of the university environment to explore alternative protein white spaces, both within and beyond the Alt Protein Project.

Media moguls from the EIT and Wageningen Alt Protein Projects created podcasts to engage with the biggest topics and news in the alternative protein sector.

The Alt Protein Project provides students and researchers with a fun, fulfilling, and inclusive community in which to explore questions and opportunities around alternative proteins. AltPro groups welcome a diverse and interdisciplinary membership to spur novel thinking, break down academic silos, and foster collaboration.

The Duke and Chapel Hill Alt Protein Projects collaborated to host a first-of-its-kind conference dedicated to “Making Alt Proteins the New Default.” With speakers from alternative protein startups, research programs, and government initiatives, their event triggered new career trajectories and professional collaborations for its more than 150 attendees.