How Local Groups Can Have Global Impact | Cambridge Alternative Protein Project | EAGxCambridge 2023

The Cambridge Alternative Protein Project was initially founded in 2019 to bring together local students interested in alternative proteins - a burgeoning field of innovative food technologies that aim to replace animal products, without relying on mass changes in consumer behaviour.

Following a strategic reset in 2021, we decided to focus on how we could leverage this local initiative to try and address some of the largest global bottlenecks in the alternative protein industry, namely:

- Talent pipelines into the field
- Lack of open-access, peer-reviewed research

In this talk, Will speaks about the Alternative Protein Fundamentals, an online course providing education, community and downstream opportunities to help driven individuals pursue careers in the alternative protein space. The course has had over 400 participants from over 60 countries and is now being professionalised as part of a new start-up project called BlueDot Impact.

Lisa speaks on an ongoing project to map the academic ecosystem of Cambridge with the goal of launching a multi-disciplinary Alternative Protein Research Centre at the University. She discusses their approach, progress to date and lessons learned along the way.

This session is based in the context of alternative proteins, but we hope the takeaways can apply across disciplines. We encourage you to think big about your local initiatives and how you can leverage them to tackle the global problems in your field.