The growth plan
On 16 September 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV), as the submitting department, sent the amended growth proposal Cellular Agriculture to the National Growth Fund (NGF). This proposal was developed in collaboration with the board of the CA foundation and the broader CA consortium. Below you can read an outline of the plan. For details, please contact us.
Growth plan
This growth plan for the National Growth Fund aims to give the Dutch Cellular Agriculture (CA) ecosystem a major boost, along the lines of education, research and upscaling. Centrally coordinated through the Cellular Agriculture Netherlands (CAN) Foundation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, an integrated approach will be rolled out over the next eight years, to train sufficiently qualified CA personnel, to develop fundamental and applied CA knowledge and to make upscaling facilities available for CA companies.
What do we mean by an ecosystem?
'A long-term and goal-oriented collaboration in which relevant partners contribute to a shared and cross-organisational interest. A public-private ecosystem harnesses the power of all existing partners. By involving different organizations within the CA ecosystem, a complete view of the challenges of this sector in development is created. The mutual cohesion within the organizations ensures faster and better solutions for all stakeholders.'
Derived from definition prepared by Kirkman
This proposal is an amendment of the initial CA growth fund proposal, submitted on 31 October 2021, to meet the conditions of the NGF committee.
Since the writing of the initial plan, we have seen that the CA sector abroad is developing rapidly. This is beneficial, because it allows the market to develop, which means that economic and environmental benefits can be realized earlier. This proposal describes the amended plan, which should make the Netherlands even more attractive as a location for companies in the CA sector. With a total one-off boost of €60 million from the NGF and additional co-financing worth €24.8 million, we expect to:
- generate €1.25 to 2.0 billion per year incremental earning power in 2050;
- in 2050 1.76 to 1.83 megatons of CO2-eq. and an additional 19.7 to 14.7 kilotonnes of ammonia per year.
An integral activity plan for the period 2023 to 2030, in which private parties, educational institutions and governments work together, has been developed and is ready to start. The CAN foundation coordinates the execution of the plan, with the Ministry of LNV, and focuses on sector development and outreach. The main activities within this plan are as follows:
Answering set conditions
In this amended plan, the conditions set by the committee are met in the following way:
More involvement and commitment of co-financing of private and public parties and better substantiation of additionality on existing sources of funding.
The new plan provides more clarity in co-financing by private and public parties. Although co-financing in this young sector and specifically on education, research and upscaling is less easy to achieve than in a more mature sector where products are already on the market, €24 million will be invested in the next 8 years from educational and knowledge institutions and private parties.
Clear governance structure and cooperation between the components of education, research and upscaling. Broader consortium with more involvement of relevant knowledge institutions.
The governance structure has been further elaborated, with a clear division of responsibilities. The collaboration between the components education, research and upscaling is elaborated in the work plan and guaranteed in the governance by joint coordinators. In the meantime, the consortium (15 parties in previous submission) has been actively broadened into an open community (now 38 parties and 20 ongoing discussions). Open calls are available for all knowledge institutions, in collaboration with NWO.
Developing a plan that is clearly focused on "spillovers" and focusing on the broad applicability of the technology to other sectors such as the medical and materials sector.
The intention of the growth plan from the beginning has been to grow CA as quickly and broadly as possible as an entire sector, broader than just the development of CA meat and CA dairy. We keep the focus on these two products to hit the ground running, but the three workflows automatically mean that there is a lot of attention for cross-pollination to adjacent markets (e.g. medical or biomaterials) or products (e.g. fish or eggs). The work stream Education will develop talents that can be found within all CA sectors. The work stream Research will provide knowledge that will be shared at conferences and through publications throughout the scientific world, and the work stream Upscaling will provide infrastructure that is by definition used more widely than for CA meat and CA dairy alone.
In conclusion
With final approval of the plan, the consortium wants to get to work as soon as possible to put the CA sector in the Netherlands firmly on the map as an international epicenter of activity, leadership and entrepreneurship in this sustainable, innovative and animal-friendly food production.
he set conditions and with the aim of achieving a maximum impact per activity. With final approval of the plan, the consortium wants to get to work as soon as possible to put the CA sector in the Netherlands firmly on the map as an international epicenter of activity, leadership and entrepreneurship in this sustainable, innovative and animal-friendly food production.