| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/X038114/1 |
| Title: |
Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub |
| Principal Investigator: |
Ellis, Professor MJ |
| Other Investigators: |
| Hanga, Dr M |
McManus, Professor MC |
Chuck, Professor CJ |
| Lye, Professor G |
MacMillan, Professor T |
Wonfor, Dr R |
| Mattia, Professor D |
Squire, Professor B |
Stephens, Dr NJ |
| Newnes, Professor LB |
Leese, Dr H S |
Xie, Dr M |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Chemical Engineering |
| Organisation: |
University of Bath |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research |
| Starts: |
01 October 2023 |
Ends: |
30 September 2030 |
Value (£): |
12,302,110
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Bioprocess Engineering |
Design of Process systems |
| Food processing |
Manufact. Enterprise Ops& Mgmt |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| Manufacturing |
Food and Drink |
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| Related Grants: |
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| Panel History: |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
Imagine being able to manufacture food anywhere in the world, or even in space, so everyone, everywhere, has enough nutritious food to eat!
This dream can be achieved through Cellular Agriculture (Cell Ag). Cell Ag enables the production of food products that would normally come from an animal, such as meat and milk from cows, or from monocultures of crops such as oil palm trees, without having to keep increasing animal or plant numbers to feed our growing global population.
Cell Ag, uses biological cell-level processes to create food via the 'building blocks of life' - the proteins, fats and carbohydrates. By delivering these building blocks, Cell Ag will transform food production by complementing traditional food production, so not only can we feed the world, but we can manufacture the food so that sustainability and social responsibility is embedded from the outset.
Why would we wish to use Cell Ag rather than animals? Let's take the example of the building block, protein, from traditional meat. Life Cycle Assessments have shown that when comparing traditional meat manufacturing against the expected benefits of using Cell Ag, there is a predicted reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and land use, of up to 95%. The analysis also estimates that we could achieve up to 50% reduction in the use of water, compared to cattle farming. And we could reduce need for intensive farming so improving animal welfare too. So, with these benefits and the urgent need to achieve Net Zero Manufacturing and protect the planets resources.
Why do we not have Cell Ag manufacturing in our homes or across all our food manufacturing sectors? There are several reasons - and our research will remove these blockers to Cell Ag manufacturing.
Current status of Cell Ag Manufacturing research and outputs in the UK:
In the UK (and across the World), there are pockets of excellent research being done, but little that focuses on delivering useable and scalable manufacturing machinery, processes, and systems in a coherent manner. The research tends to be in silos and focussed on aspects of the Manufacturing Value Chain. There are fundamental areas of research that need to be delivered to enable us to realise the Cell Ag potential, as well as transforming current research outputs to be useable.
Through this Hub we will bring together the pockets of excellence in the UK, and deliver a coherent and targeted research programme that will ensure the UK Cell Ag research ecosystem is world-leading and has manufacturing impact. Rather than target a particular sector/type of food/product - the Hub will deliver manufacturing research which will enable production of food building blocks at local, regional and international levels.
Our vision is to be the world leader in delivering materials, manufacturing processes and skills to escalate the world's adoption of sustainable Cell Ag food production. We will achieve this through becoming the net exporter of the building blocks of life.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.bath.ac.uk |