The Global agricultural and food systems account for more than 30 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, just as the role of impactful food system innovations related to climate change is becoming increasingly critical.
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Founder of Seeding The Future Foundation, Bernhard van Lengerich, who stated this, said the Seeding The Future Global Food System Challenge focuses on innovations that transform food systems to be more resilient and sustainable while also enabling equitable access to safe, nutritious, and affordable food that is trusted by consumers.

Lengerich announced that the semifinalists for the third yearly Seeding The Future Global System Challenge and 38 teams of innovators will now vie for a part of $1m across three award levels – two Seeding The Future Grand Prizes ($250,000 each), three Growth Grants ($100,000 each), and eight Seed Grants ($25,000 each).

Funded by the Seeding The Future Foundation and hosted by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), this year’s challenge received a record number of submissions (over 900) from 78 countries as multidisciplinary teams of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs submitted their innovative approaches to transform the food system towards better nutrition security and planetary health.

According to Lengerich, the challenge incentivises impactful and transformative innovations created by teams from for-profit, non-profit, or academic research entities sharing a common goal – to address the challenges of climate change and nutrition security by transforming the global food system and its impact on planetary and personal health.

“From regenerative agriculture to artificial intelligence, the challenge has received a wide range of innovative solutions, as demonstrated by the more than 2,400 submissions in the challenge’s first three years.

“Submissions opened on June 1 and closed on August 1. Over the last 45 days, submissions have been carefully evaluated and scored based on their novelty and projected impact on people’s lives and the environment by a panel of highly distinguished subject matter experts from different science and technology disciplines.”
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