Announcing Four New Official Partners to XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion

Apr 29 2021


LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (April 29, 2021) – We are excited to announce that four trailblazing food and technology organizations have officially partnered with XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion — a $15M competition incentivizing teams to produce chicken and fish alternatives that replicate or outperform conventional protein in structure, versatility, sensory properties, and nutritional profile, while having a lower comparable environmental footprint. 

“Billions of individuals desire and will continue to desire higher quality protein as a food source, but the earth is incapable of providing this with traditional livestock” said Peter H. Diamandis, XPRIZE founder and executive chairman. “A much more sustainable, scalable methodology is required.” 

As with all XPRIZE competitions, our partners will serve a crucial role in ensuring teams have the greatest opportunity to succeed and thrive in the emerging food technology and alternative protein space. Competition participants will have exclusive opportunities to interact with and learn from the following exceptional organizations and official XPRIZE partners: 

  • The Good Food Institute (GFI): The Good Food Institute is an international nonprofit building a sustainable, healthy, and just global food system. With unique insight across the scientific, policy, industry, and investment landscapes, GFI uses the power of food innovation and markets to accelerate the transition of the world’s food system toward alternative proteins. With affiliate organizations in India, Israel, Brazil, Asia Pacific, and Europe, GFI is funded entirely by private philanthropic support.
  • The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR): The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) builds public-private partnerships to fund bold research addressing big food and agriculture challenges. FFAR was established in the 2014 Farm Bill to increase public agriculture research investments, fill knowledge gaps and complement USDA’s research agenda. FFAR’s model matches federal funding from Congress with private funding, delivering a powerful return on taxpayer investment. Through collaboration and partnerships, FFAR advances actionable science benefiting farmers, consumers and the environment. Dr. Sally Rockey, Executive Director of FFAR, is also an official Advisory Board member for the competition.
  • New Harvest: New Harvest is a nonprofit research institute that supports open, public cultured meat research. Founded in 2004, they are the world’s longest-running organization dedicated to advancing the field of cellular agriculture. Isha Datar, Executive Director of New Harvest, is also an official Advisory Board member for the competition.
  • District 3 Innovation Centre: Based at Concordia University in Montreal, District 3 (D3) came into being when Montreal’s startup ecosystem was in its infancy. They focus on advancing an open, collaborative ecosystem that enables entrepreneurs to thrive and succeed. With programs and services open to all, they represent a diversity of cultures, backgrounds and ideas – fostering innovation and a global mindset. As an official competition Ambassador, D3 plays a special role in onboarding innovative startup teams from the Canadian region.     

These official partners will offer a variety of resources and expertise to the competing teams, including cutting-edge research and industry insights, exclusive informational sessions and team workshops, mentorship opportunities, and other types of general support. They will also assist with amplifying the competition’s mission and recruiting high-caliber teams from around the world.  

Throughout the duration of the competition, XPRIZE will continue to recruit additional partners to help achieve future milestones. These will include partnerships related to testing and regulatory support, data and equipment contributions, and scaling the best solutions to maximize the impact that the competition has on the globe. There will also be partners to assist with helping teams achieve market access and investment opportunities.  


ABOUT XPRIZE

XPRIZE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world’s grandest challenges. Active competitions include the $20 Million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, the $10 Million Rainforest XPRIZE, the $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE, the $5 Million IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, $5 Million XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling, XPRIZE NextGen Mask Challenge and $5 Million XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing. For more information, visit xprize.org.