The Bezos Earth Fund has issued a grant of $30 million to Imperial College London to establish a new centre dedicated to developing sustainable food solutions.
The new centre will focus on creating alternative food products that are ‘economically and environmentally friendly, nutritious, affordable, and tasty’, the Fund said in a statement.
This funding is part of a $100 million commitment by the Bezos Earth Fund to promote sustainable protein alternatives and expand consumer choices. The group’s overall investment in food transformation will amount to $1 billion.
In May, the Bezos Earth Fund launched its first sustainable protein center at North Carolina State University.
‘Proud to support Imperial’
“The Bezos Earth Fund is proud to support Imperial as the home of our second sustainable protein centre,” Dr. Andrew Steer, president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund commented.
“By 2050 the world population will be over 10 billion, so now is the time to rethink the way we produce and consume food. This work will help ensure that our future includes more protein options – and that they taste great, are nutritious and come at low cost.”
Seven academic departments
The Bezos Centre For Sustainable Protein at Imperial College will involve seven academic departments, focusing on areas such as precision fermentation, cultivated meat, bioprocessing, automation, nutrition, and AI and machine learning.
It will employ rational and computational-guided engineering strategies, alongside automation at ‘biofoundries’. These biofoundries will convert cells into mini-factories that produce useful products, accelerating the development and scaling of new bio-based processes, according to the Bezos Earth Fund.
It will also encompass institutes and facilities that will help translate discoveries into real-world applications, educate the next generation of bioengineers, and support commercialisation, the Fund noted.
Professor Hugh Brady, president of Imperial College London, added that food security is a major global challenge facing humanity, “For a sustainable future, we need to ensure that people across the world can be fed adequately and nutritiously with minimal impact on biodiversity, climate and our wider natural environment.” [Photo: YauMingLow/iStock]
