The Harvest for Health has launched the Breakthrough Crop Challenge to develop a predictive model that can screen underutilized crops to determine a crop’s usefulness as a source of functional ingredients or nutrients.
The challenge attracts more private sector investment in underutilized crop development.
While underutilized crops have incredible functional and nutritional potential, the development of such crops for consumption or use in other products is prohibitively expensive and time-intensive.
Funding Information
Seed funding of up to $75,000 to develop a predictive model of underutilized crops.
Eligibility Criteria
Any US and non-US public or private institution, consortium, non-profit organization, for-profit company, tribal government entity or any combination of the above is eligible to apply.
Contestants do not need to participate in Seed Funding to participate in the Challenge or potentially receive $1 million.
The Challenge winner will be involved with FFAR in the utilization of the predictive model in Phase II of the Harvest for Health program, which will be used to prioritize underutilized crops for commercial development based on their potential for increased public and private investments.
What are the seed funding submission requirements?
The Breakthrough Crop Challenge is requesting concept notes for predictive models to identify crops with market potential as a source of one or more of the following functional ingredients:
Thickeners, emulsifiers, and stabilizers
Bulking agents
Taste and flavor enhancers
High nutrient density (specific nutrients to be proposed by applicants)
Proposed models will be assessed and prioritized based on the number of functionalities addressed and the accuracy of their predictive abilities.
For more information, visit Harvest for Health.
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