The Challenge is hosted by IFT and funded and initiated by the Seeding The Future Foundation. In its first three years, it has attracted over 2,400 submissions from teams of scientists, engineers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and multidisciplinary teams across non-governmental organizations (NGOs), non-profits, social enterprises, universities, research institutions, as well as small and emerging for-profit enterprises.

The Seeding The Future Foundation and the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) are proud to announce that submissions are now open for the fourth annual Seeding The Future Global Food System Challenge. Awarding up to USD $1 million, the Challenge is designed to create and accelerate the pace of innovations needed to transform food systems to become more nutritious, regenerative, and equitable.

The Challenge is hosted by IFT and funded and initiated by the Seeding The Future Foundation. In its first three years, it has attracted over 2,400 submissions from teams of scientists, engineers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and multidisciplinary teams across non-governmental organizations (NGOs), non-profits, social enterprises, universities, research institutions, as well as small and emerging for-profit enterprises.

Applications close on January 6, 2025.

"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 Seeding The Future Foundation founder Bernhard van Lengerich. "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."

To incentivize innovation at all levels, ranging from idea generation to development and scale-up, the Challenge offers three levels of awards:

Up to eight Seed Grants ($25,000 each) will be awarded to organizations that have created innovative ideas and have developed a prototype or initial proof of concept demonstrating that their idea is feasible and impactful when scaled.
Up to three Growth Grants ($100,000 each) will be awarded to organizations that have demonstrated their innovation is doable, scalable, and have projected both economic feasibility at scale and high potential to be transformative in impacting the health of people and the environment.
Up to two Seeding The Future Grand Prizes (up to $250,000 each) will be awarded to organizations that have created innovations that are economically feasible at scale, trusted by consumers, and have demonstrated major impact potential benefitting the lives and health of people and the environment.
"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 IFT CEO Christie Tarantino-Dean. "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."

New this year, applicants who pass the first phases of the review process can earn a spot in the Seeding The Future Global Food System Innovation Database and Network, a peer-reviewed, dynamic, interactive, and searchable database of Challenge applicants and their innovations. This database will be available to global organizations focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme, as well as philanthropic organizations. The database will also be available to the investment community to provide capital for innovative organizations that their respective investment criteria.

Currently in development, the database will enable AI-assisted searches to find innovations or organizations that focus on specific food and agriculture issues; sustainable development goals; planetary health factors such as greenhouse gas emissions, water, land use or biodiversity; as well as field of application such as post-harvest loss reduction, school feeding programs, or biofortification. Entries include organization name, type, website, project title, executive summary, a description of the innovation and its benefits, projected size and type of impact on people and the environment, as well as focus areas where support can either be provided or be received. This feature allows ‘solution seekers' to connect with ‘solution providers' to share experiences and accelerate the pace of their innovations.

To learn more about the Challenge, go to www.ift.org/food-system-challenge.

About Seeding The Future Foundation

The Seeding The Future Foundation is a private, non-profit organization motivated by its core value that everyone should always have equitable access to safe, nutritious, affordable, appealing, and trusted food. It seeks to inspire innovative solutions that can help transform the global food system to be more sustainable and benefit the health of people and the environment. The Foundation provides seed funding and support to promising ideas and high impact innovations to improve food systems globally, technologies to reduce post-harvest losses in developing regions, as well as foundational work in academia and research. For more information, please visit seedingthefuture.org.

About Institute of Food Technologists

The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) is a global organization of approximately 11,000 individual members from more than 90 countries committed to advancing the science of food. Since 1939, IFT has brought together the brightest minds in food science, technology and related professions from academia, government, and industry to solve the world's greatest food challenges. IFT works to ensure that its members have the resources they need to learn, grow, and innovate to advance the science of food as the population and the world evolve. IFT believes that science and innovation are essential to ensuring a global food supply that is sustainable, safe, nutritious, and accessible to all. For more information, please visit ift.org.