IFT, Seeding the Future challenge submissions now open

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IFT, Seeding the Future challenge submissions now open

5 Nov 2024

Annie Hollon

Annie Hollon is a journalist, copywriter and social media strategist from the Dallas, Texas area. She found a love for magazine writing during her time at the University of Alabama where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, double majoring in public relations and English. Beyond writing, you can find her expanding her library, attempting to teach herself the guitar and trying new hobbies.

CHICAGO — The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) and the Seeding The Future Foundation announced that submissions for the fourth annual Seeding The Future Global Food System Challenge are now open.

“IFT is proud to partner with the Seeding The Future Foundation on the challenge and support its mission to provide innovators and entrepreneurs with the resources that are critical to ensuring a healthy future for food,” said Christie Tarantino-Dean, CEO of IFT. “The challenge truly celebrates the unsung heroes of the global food system, and we are excited to see how this year’s entrants continue to raise the bar on impactful innovation.”

The challenge, hosted by IFT and funded and initiated by Seeding the Future, is designed to create and accelerate the development of innovations that make food systems more nutritious, regenerative and equitable.

“Science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship can transform ag/food systems on a global level as the need for human-centered and high-impact, climate-positive solutions that are scalable becomes more urgent every year,” said Bernhard van Lengerich, founder of the Seeding The Future Foundation. “The purpose of the challenge is to inspire and reward teams of innovators who are creating impactful ideas that address the most relevant issues facing ag/food systems globally. Solutions with the highest likelihood to win are those that focus on the intersection of safe and nutritious food, sustainable practices and equitable access to food that is affordable, appealing and trusted.”

The challenge offers three levels of awards to draw in innovations of all scales:

Seed Grants: Up to eight $25,000 grants will be awarded to organizations that create innovative ideas and develop a prototype or initial proof of concept to demonstrate the feasibility and impact of the idea at scale.
Growth Grants: Three organizations will receive $100,000 each after demonstrating that their innovation is doable and scalable. Winners will have also projected both economic feasibility at scale and high potential to be transformative in impacting the health of people and the environment.
Seeding the Future Grand Prizes: Up to two organizations will receive up to $250,000 each if they create innovations that are economically feasible at scale, trusted by consumers and demonstrate major impact benefiting people and the environment.

This year, challenge applicants who pass the first phase of the review process will have the opportunity to earn a spot in the Seeding The Future Global Food System Innovation Database and Network. This peer-reviewed, interactive and searchable database of applicants and their innovations will be available to a variety of global organizations focused on sustainability as well as the investment community. While currently in development, the feature will include AI-assisted searches to help companies find innovations or organizations focused on specific food and agriculture issues.

Applications close on Jan. 6. For more information, visit the IFT website.

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