Village By CA North of France

European call for applications: “Innovate to develop people demand for plant-based proteins products"

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HOW TO FEED 9 BILLION PEOPLE IN 2050?

Global proteins demand is expected to soar 40% between now and 2030 only.

Relying essentially on the production of animal protein in order to meet this increased need is out of reach for our planet. It is therefore critical to strike a better balance between animal proteins and plant-based proteins in people's diets all over the world.

Hence the challenge: to break new ground and speed up the rate at which people are starting to adopt plant-based proteins in their diets throughout the world.

Are you a project bearer or a start-up company of less than three years existence? Are you developing innovative products, processes, services or applications that involve plant-based proteins?

Are you looking to guarantee your company's viability and boost its growth on local and international markets? 

Join Village by CA North of France, part of the most promising cutting-edge ecosystem in France and Europe that gathers world class industrial companies, top research and academic institutions and potential investors, alongside two clusters that help structure the plant-based protein sector: the Nutrition, Health & Longevity Cluster and the Industry and Agro-Resources, the French bio-economy Cluster.

Your innovative project is designed to take up
one or several of the following challenges:

Nutritional
challenge

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Environmental challenge

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Repletion
challenge

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Cultural
challenge

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Timeline

At stake for the startups

Maximise the chances of your company by joining Village by CA North of France. You'll get:

Introduced to your future clients, partners and suppliers:

  • Village by CA – supported by the Eurasanté, NSL and IAR clusters and the Village's partners – can introduce you to the right contact you need to meet

  • Mentoring provided by the Village's partners of the Call for Application

  • Active meetings with potential investors and financiers

Personalised support to help you get your project off the ground quickly:

  • Project structuring (financial, legal, regulatory expertise, etc.)

  • Scientific and technical expertise

  • Help with experiments and evaluations

  • Go to market

  • Economic intelligence

  • International development

  • Communication and marketing strategy

  • Search for financing

  • Support for accessing collaborative projects which in turn give access to European funding (national research agency, single inter-ministerial fund, European projects, etc.)

Hosting at Village by CA North of France,

  • In the Euratechnologies, Eurasanté or Euralimentaire sites, depending on the project bearer or start-up requirements

  • For up to 8 months during the incubation period and 24 months during the acceleration period

Start-ups hosted by the Village will benefit from the Village’s and/or Eurasanté’s/NSL’s events: conferences, workshops, networking events, HR support, etc.

If the project bearer does not wish to be hosted at the Village, Village personalized support will be granted for up to three months.

Highlighting and showcasing on the European stage

  • Get showcased at Nutrevent, the European business convention, which runs from 14 to 15 June (workshop and evening to promote the winners)

  • Promotion of winners via the Village's promotional tools and those of partners as well as the specialist press.

Context

According to estimates, the world population is set to reach 9 billion by 2050. This means major nutritional, environmental and food security challenges.

Proteins are vital for a balanced diet, and the global proteins demand will soar 40% by 2030 only.

The environmental cost of producing animal proteins is by all account far from negligible – considerably higher than that of producing plant-based proteins. Relying essentially on the production of animal protein in order to meet this increased need is not sustainable for our planet.

Feeding people in the future therefore requires finding new solutions in order to restore the balance between animal proteins and plant-based proteins in what we eat.

The Hauts-de-France region is at the cutting edge in the ambition to establish France and Europe as world leaders in the development of plant-based proteins.

A powerful and dynamic sector is taking shape, originating from the Hauts-de-France region with:

  • World leaders in the agrifoods industry which – like Bonduelle – have global influence.

  • Prestigious companies such as SODEXO which provides services designed to enhance quality of life, contributing to people's well-being in 80 countries.

  • Leading research centres, technical platforms and training institutes reknown on the international stage with which industrial stakeholders work closely.

  • The presence in the region of 2 competitivity clusters: the Nutrition, Health & Longevity Cluster and the Industry and Agro-Resources, Bio-economy Cluster, which lend structure to the sector and liven it up, extending their influence from Hauts de France, throughout France and all over the world.

  • Fertile farmland for supplying high-quality products.

Village by CA North of France is a unique ecosystem entirely focused on speeding up the development of innovative start-up companies. It does this by providing a cutting-edge environment within which they can meet and work alongside other start-ups, major companies, research and training centres, investors and institutional stakeholders.

What our partners are saying:

Village by CA
North of France
 

Innovating as a means of speeding up the environmental transition and the nutrition transition now seems essential: plant-based proteins play a key role in the challenges with which we are today faced and those we will have to embrace in the future. We firmly believe that innovation can never come about as a result of people working on their own, but is instead the result of work carried out jointly. So we are delighted to be spearheading this initiative with our partners, identifying and hosting promising newcomers who are breaking new ground in the field of plant-based proteins and helping them all to boost their development together.

 

 
 


Eurasanté –
Nutrition, Health & Longevity Cluster

Since 2009, Eurasanté and the NSL cluster have been staging the Nutrevent business convention, an event entirely dedicated to innovation in the fields of Nutrition and Health. Consumers' desire for alternatives to animal proteins, together with all the challenges associated with improving the nutritional profiles of products currently available on the market are among the topics that will be investigated within the framework of this event. The call for projects landing held during Nutrevent will be a means to reward innovative start-ups operating in this field (ingredients, processes, finished products), while at the same time providing them with a discussion forum within which they can meet potential business and innovation partners.

 



Bonduelle 

Bonduelle has set itself the target of being the leading company engaged in helping people to live well by eating vegetable products. For this to be possible, plant-based proteins are essential – because of their nutritional, environmental and economic benefits. And yet, the fact still remains that plant-based protein consumption is lower in Europe than it is anywhere else in the world. To change this, new approaches are needed, and the issue needs to be tackled on all fronts: agronomics, processing, products, consumers' behaviour, etc. As a civic-minded company that is a leader in its field, the Bonduelle group wants to mobilise and bring together all the energy available in order to bring about change.

 

 
 


Sodexo

As a world leader in quality-of-life services, Sodexo’s aim is to improve the "quality of life" of the 75 million people it serves every day. Through this innovation competition, we are hoping to find potential partners offering innovative solutions in order to increase the number of meal options that we can provide our consumers or improve their dietary habits. Sodexo is seeking to incorporate the solutions developed by the winning start-up companies into its own food service offerings for various different types of consumers. As a Fortune Global 500 company, we also want to help emerging companies grow and develop their business at international level. The winners of this competition can look upon Sodexo as a strategic partner that might help them expand their interests on the international markets.

 




 

Lille Catholic University 

The Lille Catholic University is concerned about the nutritional and societal issues and challenges with which we are increasingly faced and is keen to get involved, playing a part in developing innovative solutions and raising the profile of plant-based protein as a food source for human consumption.Tackling this major issue is matching our values and naturally resonates with the active teaching we deliver to open-up our students to sociocultural, societal and scientific issues.

 
 
 


La Voix medias

Since we take our role of supporting regional companies seriously, we believe it is important to get involved in projects such as this one. Launching a dynamic initiative of this sort in our region, supporting start-up companies and project leaders, is fascinating work – given all the challenges that it involves. We are therefore delighted to be playing a part in the creation of this ecosystem and believe it should extend as far as possible beyond our borders.




IAR Cluster 

Developing plant-based proteins and other new sources of protein is central to what IAR does – particularly in its capacity as one of the partners in the Protein France consortium and a key stakeholder in the IMPROVE project. As a catalyst for innovation, IAR works on speeding up the development of products and innovative technologies, as well as bringing them to market. By being involved in this call for projects, IAR is seeking to continue supporting and accelerating innovation in order to establish France as a world leader in the field of proteins.

 

 

Crédit Agricole
Nord de France

Crédit Agricole Nord de France is the leading banking partner of farmers and Agrifood industries on its territory. As such, we support our clients R&D projects, including those of world class companies who strive to answer tomorrow’s challenge of feeding the world, in a context of resources increasing scarcity. Plant-based proteins are part of the solution. This call for applications is strategic, as it answers a major societal stake to which both our territory and our bank may help.





14 JUNE

Results announcement
in Lille

Candidates’ pitches hearing by the Selection Committee – announcement of the winners during Nutrevent, the European business convention where food, nutrition and health innovators converge.


Contact


If you have any questions regarding the call for applications

please send an email to:levillagebyca@ca-norddefrance.fr