Dutch government confirms €60M investment into cellular agriculture

First activities in cellular agriculture education, research and upscaling facilities will now start. With an additional €25 million in co-financing, the total program’s budget has been extended to €85 million.

The Dutch government has confirmed that it will allocate €60 million to support an ecosystem around cellular agriculture, the technology to produce animal products such as meat and milk proteins directly from animal and microbial cells. It is the world's largest ever national government grant for cellular agriculture. This government grant was reserved under conditions from the National Growth Fund in April of this year. The implementation of the plan will start under the coordination of the Cellular Agriculture Netherlands Foundation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.
 
In addition to the €60 million grant from the National Growth Fund, an additional €25 million in co-financing is expected, bringing the total size of the budget to €85 million. It is estimated that this will achieve an incremental €1.25 - €2.0 billion in growth in Dutch earning capacity by 2050, while simultaneously generating significant global climate, environmental and health benefits. For example, preventing ~1.8 Mton CO2-eq. emissions and 15-20 kton ammonia per year in 2050.
 
The activities aim to give the Dutch cellular agriculture (CA) ecosystem a significant boost over the next eight years, among other things by developing fundamental and applied CA knowledge, making scale-up facilities available to CA companies and sufficiently qualified CA personnel. to train. This makes the Netherlands more attractive as a location for companies in the CA sector.

The Cellular Agriculture Netherlands Foundation is the center of a fast-growing community of now 34 organizations (educational and knowledge institutions, NGOs, startups, industry), which all have the common goal of building a healthy CA sector. The foundation will set up an executive program office and establish contact with potential partners that are relevant to the implementation of the programs.
 
The Netherlands has a strong history when it comes to innovation in food production. The confirmation of this public investment in cellular agriculture is an example of the commitment of the Dutch government to build a food system that is healthy and sustainable. Combined with reforms in traditional agriculture, cellular agriculture could provide an additional option to meet the growing demand for protein worldwide.
 
While individual startups in cellular agriculture have successfully attracted private investment in recent years, this Growth Fund funding is explicitly intended to support the public part of the ecosystem. It is expected that this impulse will further strengthen the position of the Netherlands in the field of cellular agriculture worldwide and that the Netherlands will attract more companies, more financing and more cooperation in the field of cellular agriculture in the coming years.
 
This announcement does not change the process individual companies must go through to receive approval to sell their products, the European Novel Foods pathway.