Accelerating the transition from animal-based to alternative dietary proteins – the dietary shift – is key to reducing the footprint of our food system in terms of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), energy, water and land use, and other relevant environmental impacts, and for improving the health and well-being of people, animals and the planet. GIANT LEAPS delivers the strategic innovations, methodologies, and open-access datasets to speed up this dietary shift, in line with the Farm-to-Fork strategy and contributing to the Green Deal target of reaching climate neutrality by 2050. Achieving the dietary shift in practice is inherently complex due to the diverse set of actors involved and further hindered by major knowledge gaps, scattered across the various alternative protein sources and the domains of health (safety, allergenicity and digestibility), environment (GHGs and other environmental and climate impacts, biodiversity, circularity), and/or barriers to adoption (technological, sensory, and consumer acceptance). The GIANT LEAPS consortium consists of the key actors and spans all expertise to address relevant knowledge gaps and proactively engages to arrive at optimized future diets based on alternative proteins that are broadly accepted across stakeholder groups. In order to deliver required insights for short-, mid- and long-term decision making and impact, GIANT LEAPS protein sources have been selected for either targeted or full assessment based on their current level of specification. The innovations and improved methods combined with accessible and comprehensive information, generated for a wide collection of alternative proteins, will enable policymakers to prioritise changes in the food system towards the dietary shift based on desired impact, value chain actors to make strategic scientific, business and investment choices, and the general public to make more sustainable and healthy dietary choices.

LOCALITY will implement local, innovative, and sustainable value chains, supporting the interaction of the algae value chain actors with relevant waste stream producing industries. Three regional ecosystems will be strategically developed in key regions considering strong and active business on which circularity and sustainability will be improved by the reutilization of wasted nutrients for algae cultivation. These ecosystems will be positioned in the Baltic and North Sea bordering countries but multi-perspectively supported by other R&D and industrial experienced partners in sustainable algae production. The biomass will be processed using a biorefinery approach and raw and treated ingredients applied in the food, aquafeed, agriculture, and textile markets. An integrative methodology involving R&D partners, industry, and SMEs will work in each market sector to develop innovative and sustainable algae-based products. The consumer readiness for the designed products will be assessed, and significant constraints and legal barriers will be identified. Those will be evaluated and integrated into the business model to prepare a successful market implementation and exploitation of the developed products. A dissemination and communication plan for maximum outreach to all relevant stakeholders will be implemented. The designed products will gain a strong position in the European marketplace in the coming years.

The Farm to Fork Strategy of the European Green Deal has acknowledged the potential of algae to become an important source of alternative low-carbon footprint protein and contribute to improve the sustainability and competitiveness of the aquaculture sector. Nonetheless, the European algae industry is still at an early phase lagging behind the overall increase seen at a global level, mostly driven by Asia. Within this context, INNOAQUA aims to pave the path towards the upcoming sustainable and diversified EU in-land aquaculture industry by leaning on the demonstration and mainstreaming of innovative algae-based foods and solutions, and ecology, circularity and digitalization concepts. To this end, the project will address main barriers hindering the growth of the sector, starting with the demonstration at a pre-commercial level (TRL6-7) of the operational, technical, and socio-economic robustness of digitally enhanced integrated fish and algae RAS-IMTA cultivation systems, continued by the piloting of optimised processing techniques following biorefinery principles and the formulation of high added value seafood products. All this, accompanied by a dedicated waste minimisation and valorisation strategy to help optimizing and increasing its economic and sustainability performance. Moreover, INNOAQUA will also work on understanding how consumer perceptions and social norms influence the consumption of innovative seafood products by co-creating the products together with end-users and simulating their uptake in digital models of communities to identify effective market deployment and penetration strategies. Lastly, INNOAQUA will be enhanced by the adoption of a multi-level outreaching strategy which will the development of robust dissemination, communication and exploitation plans, materials for skills development and activities to foster international cooperation, aimed at fostering knowledge transfer and ultimately helping maximize the project’s scope and impact.

ProFuture will set the basis for market uptake of innovative, healthy and sustainable food and feed products, reformulated with protein-rich ingredients from Spirulina, Lemon/lightly/Chlorella vulgaris, Tetraselmis chuii and Nannochloropsis oceanica. Multi-factors approach and LCA/LCC will boost sustainability of the microalgal biomass production and processing, by reducing energy/water consumption and the carbon footprint. Implementation of innovative technologies will increase the efficiency and decrease the production costs of biomass, ingredients and foods/feeds. Optimized workflows will be tested at pilot plant, as part of a biorefinery process, to produce single-cell proteins and protein isolates, which will be characterized for their nutritional, safety, techno-functional and organoleptic properties as well as for economic viability & sustainability. Food and feed will be formulated with the novel ingredients at pilot plant level in collaboration with SME and large companies. Single-cell proteins will be incorporated in foods (n=6) and feeds (n=5) which will be produced at industrial scale. The food/feed microalgae value chain in EU will be analysed and improvements will be proposed to increase the economic viability and the communication between actors. Social and economic benefits of innovative food and feed products will be demonstrated by: i) supporting the authorization of novel microalgae protein ingredients for food and/or feed applications in the EU, ii) assessing consumer acceptance of and preference for microalgae protein-based products, iii) preparing a successful market implementation and exploitation of the project results and iv) devising a dissemination and communication plan for maximum outreach to all relevant stakeholders. ProFuture consortium (8 RTDs, 16 SMEs, 8 large industries and 1 association) brings together expertise with a clear market orientation to increase the competitiveness of the EU microalgae value chain.