The SEED Programme is to nurture creative ideas and foster innovative and entrepreneurial thinking among researchers who will become the entrepreneurs of the future. The programme will support the translation of research into commercial opportunities and help to seed future alternative protein businesses.
Are you exploring emerging diets, alternative proteins, novel ingredients, or cutting-edge food technologies with commercial potential? Do you have an innovative idea that could transform the future of food but need the right guidance and support to make it happen? Maybe you’ve already started your journey, you have formed a team, developed a prototype, or even registered a company, but you need expert mentoring, business insights, and industry connections to take your idea to market. This includes research/projects from 0-3 TRL.
If you’re ready to turn your innovation into a viable venture, the SEED Programme can help you make it happen.
To be eligible to apply for SEED you must be a research staff including PhDs, Postdocs, Research Associates, Fellows, and Research technical support staff in UKRI funding eligible University or Research organisation.
The SEED Programme will be delivered through a combination of structured lectures, case studies, demonstrations, and workshops, complemented by personalised one-to-one mentoring leading up to a final pitch day. The 3-month programme includes sessions with business experts, online and in-person talks and training sessions, online workshops and networking.
Application opens
5th Oct 2026
Webinar
26th Oct 2026
Application deadline
4th Dec
Outcome accouncement
Jan 2027
Programme starts
Feb/March 2027
Final pitch day
June 2027
TBC
The SEED Programme is fully funded for individuals who meet the eligibility criteria for SEED. All tuition, mentoring, access to experts & special mentors and materials are provided at no cost.
*Selected applicant will have to arrange their own travel & accommodation.
Limited spaces.
For group packages (3+ spaces), please contact [email protected]
Fee includes:
Director, Altmore Enterprise Ltd
Alex Hyde is a Great Taste Award winning, food scientist and nutritionist supporting chefs and foodie entrepreneurs to disrupt our unsustainable food systems deliciously. She specialises in sustainable, plant-based protein and fibre-rich foods and delivers well evidenced, strategic science insights needed to unlock sustainable & resilient business growth. Alex facilitates academic/ business partnerships both through advising the UK’s National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC) team on small businesses perspective’ and through partnerships with Brunel University, Reading University and University College Birmingham academics. She is a guest senior lecturer at Leeds University.
Senior Vice President- Early Stage Banking, ClimateTech, HSBC Innovation Banking
Amy heads the early-stage climate tech portfolio at HSBC Innovation Banking, supporting the next waves of innovators tackling the climate crisis. A Canadian CPA turned climate tech enthusiast, she previously built the Platform function at 2150, an early-stage VC focused on decarbonising cities. A Vancouverite now based in London, Amy holds an MSc in Climate Change, Management, and Finance from Imperial College London. When she’s not working, you can find her hiking, snowboarding or playing boardgames with friends.
Director Bioeconomy, Health & Nutrition, Eagle Genomics Advisor, Jury Member & Mentor, EIT
Food Artem Khlebnikov is a senior R&D and investment leader with over 20 years of experience spanning life sciences, microbiome, digital health, food-tech innovation, and corporate venture investing. He has played a central role in scientific and strategic portfolio construction and post-investment value creation for global investment vehicles, including Danone Manifesto Ventures ($150M+) and Health for Life Capital I & II (€200M+). Artem has supported investments across biotechnology platforms, alternative proteins, personalised nutrition, microbiome-based therapeutics, and digital health, working closely with founders and executive teams from seed through growth stages with companies such as Nature’s Fynd, DayTwo, Foodsmart, Sun Genomics, Federation Bio, and BCD Bio.
Director & Co-Founder, Lunch.co
Chris Fung is a food innovation leader, entrepreneur, and mentor with extensive experience in building and scaling consumer-focused food and healthy eating businesses. Chris is best known for his long tenure as CEO and co-creator of Crussh Fit Food & Juice Bars, a pioneering UK healthy food brand offering juices, smoothies, salads and other nutritious options, where he led the business for over 13 years and developed hundreds of products across multiple categories. Beyond Crussh, Chris is a co-founder of Lunch.Co, a workplace meal marketplace, and serves as a non-executive director, board advisor and investor across several food, food-tech and consumer ventures.
Inventor and Chief Scientific Officer, PulseON Foods Ltd.
Group Leader, Quadram Institute Biosciences Cathrina Edwards leads a research group within the Food, Microbiome and Health programme at Quadram Institute Bioscience in Norwich, UK. Cathrina is passionate about translational and impactful research. She has pioneered the development of a unique food ingredient, PulseON® – now being commercialised via Pulseon Foods Ltd. She is also a member of the Food Standards Agency’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes.
Knowledge Transfer Manager- AgriFood, Innovate UK Business Connect
Debbie Tully is a seasoned innovation and knowledge transfer professional specialising in the UK food and drink sector. She currently serves as Knowledge Transfer Manager for Food within the AgriFood team at Innovate UK Business Connect, where she works with companies of all sizes to identify innovation priorities, forge collaborations and access funding that drives sustainable food systems. Before joining IUK Business Connect, Debbie has been in commercial and business development roles.
Technology & Start-up Scouting, Bühler Group
Fernando leads Technology and Start-Up Scouting for Bühler in the UK, fostering strategic partnerships between industry, academia, and startups. Equipped with an MSc in Logistics & Supply Chain, alongside an MEng and BEng in Civil Engineering, he brings over 15 years of experience to the field. He specializes in integrating and scaling emerging technologies and processes to transition toward a more sustainable global food value chain.
Entrepreneur in Residence, Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, Imperial College London
Geoff Bryant is a sustainable food innovation and quality leader with more than 25 years’ experience taking new ingredients and products from early development through scale-up and commercial delivery. His career includes senior technical and business leadership roles at Mars Inc, Quorn Foods, and Calysta, where he led the delivery of a large-scale industrial fermentation facility for single-cell protein.
Head of R&D Future Core Design & Food Service, Nomad Foods
Georgios Tetradis-Mairis is a senior leader in the Research, Development & Quality organisation at Nomad Foods, currently heading the Futures team within RDQ. He is responsible for shaping and driving the company’s long-term science, technology, and innovation agenda to meet future category needs. In his 6 years at Nomad Foods, Georgios has built the Futures program from the ground up, delivering breakthrough work across packaging innovation, new processing technologies (including non-fried solutions), and alternative proteins such as cell-based and bivalve-based concepts. He has also led major transformation initiatives, including pioneering Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods together with the Sustainability team and spearheading exploratory work challenging the conventional –18°C cold-chain standard. Lead central activities, and for 12months led the R&D restructuring of new acquired business at the Adriatic region (Ledo and Frikom brand).
Innovation Ventures Lead, Innocent Drinks
Kate is an experienced leader of innovation in the food industry and currently leads the ‘Innovation Ventures’ team at Innocent drinks – the part of the European R&D team at Innocent that carries out research and enabler projects to future-proof and feed Innocent’s innovation pipeline. Prior to joining Innocent in 2025, Kate has had a varied career in the food industry. As a co-founder and Managing Director of Liberation Foods CIC, she drove market access and value chain development for small-scale producers worldwide, creating a profitable, social impact-led business model and industry disrupting brand. On a consultancy basis, Kate created the food and drink commercial partnership between M&S and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Project Managed a global product launch for Costa Coffee.
Global Innovation Programme Manager, Kerry
Kerri is a Global Programme Manager in the Open Innovation team located in Naas, Ireland. In this role, she oversees the scouting and evaluation of external technologies for Kerry’s broad global technology portfolio across Food & Beverage and Pharma. She has led major innovation initiatives across UK & Europe, including heading delivery for Queen’s University’s Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre under the Belfast Regional City Deal, EIT Food Seedbed, the first pan European agri-food start-up incubator and Innovate UK’s Scaling the Edge intrapreneurship programme.
Global Foods R&D Product Director, PepsiCo Laetitia
Rocha is a purpose-driven leader in Food and Nutrition and Transformational Change, dedicated to improving human and economic sustainability. As a Registered Nutritionist and R&D professional, she applies science and design thinking to develop human centric solutions. Over the years, her business analytical skills have enabled the creation of multiple solutions, from business models to change strategies. She has managed a broad range of projects for several food companies, from front end and technology innovation to M&A and product launches across multiple diverse geographies, including Africa. She recently led a cultural transformation initiative which spanned Global R&D and PepsiCo, anchored in its pep+ strategy for Positive Choices.
Director, IF Consulting & Advisory Interim Chief Commercial Officer, Cambridge Cleantech Climate Tech
SuperCluster Lara Tyrrell is a sustainability and innovation leader with extensive experience supporting climate technology, corporate strategy and systemic transformation. She currently serves as Interim Chief Commercial Officer at Cambridge Cleantech & Climate Tech SuperCluster, where she leads commercial strategy and partnerships to accelerate sustainable innovation across Europe’s climate tech ecosystem. Previously, Lara was a Partner and Programme Director at Xynteo, where she led Europe Delivers, a flagship programme that brings together senior executives from diverse sectors to co create and scale solutions to major environmental and social challenges.
Senior Director Ingredient Research, Mondelēz International
Lee is an experienced research and innovation leader with a strong track record of translating scientific research into real-world impact within the food and ingredients sector. Currently serving as Senior Director of Ingredient Research at Mondelēz International, Lee leads global, multidisciplinary teams working across ingredient innovation, material science, flavour science, crop science, and biotransformation. His work bridges cutting-edge research with commercial application, supporting the development and scale-up of technologies used across international markets.
Associate professor, UCL Global Business School for Health
Orsolya (Orsi) Ihasz is an academic and practitioner, fellow in Science and Technology, specializes in impact-driven innovation management with a focus on digital transformation. As the Director of Venture Programmes at Cranfield University’s Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship, she designs and delivers courses on managing strategic innovation, sustainable business models and social innovation and impact. Orsi is a co-founder of Colab-8, a venture consultancy helping clients to unlock innovation and the potential of their businesses by creating strategies that drive sustainable growth.
Group Director Strategy and Corporate Development, TREATT Director, May Contain Nuts
Paul Kollesoff is a global business leader with over 20 years of experience across the food, nutrition, flavour, and biotech sectors. He has a strong track record of building and scaling businesses from early-stage ventures to international success, most notably as Founder and CEO of The Urgent Company, a pioneer in sustainable food. Paul currently leads Corporate Strategy and Category Development at Treatt PLC, where he drives strategic transformation, global partnerships, and expansion into new categories. Previously, he served as Managing Director of Perfect Day’s B2B division, delivering over $20 million in synergistic savings while leading commercial expansion across Europe and Asia.
Knowledge Transfer Manager- AgriFood, Innovate UK Business Connect
Simon started work in pharmaceuticals, then brewing followed by bulk chemical cargo inspection, animal feed and food safety. Joining the Innovate UK KTN in 2013, where he helps drive innovation, by powerfully connecting people, before guiding them through funding schemes. Simon created the Food Innovation Network from scratch for Defra that converted £50K of innovation grant into £250K of research value, facilitated £650K of business for SMEs from large companies and influenced Government policy. His recent interest has been filling the funding gap between prototype and scale up by accessing Series A investment. Via the Innovate UK, Transforming Food Production: Series A Investor partnership, he has prepared SMEs for investment and manged a group of investors. This has resulted in private investment of over £65M in addition to the public impact investment of £24M, into 35 AgriTech businesses. before securing a Career Track Group Leader position in December 2017, and obtaining her current tenured Group Leader position in November 2023.
Food Tech/ Futures Lead, Lloyds Corporate & Institutional
Vicky Grinnell-Wright is the Director and lead on Food Tech and Food Systems Transformation at Lloyds Banking Group Corporate and Institutional Banking. With extensive experience at the intersection of finance and food technology, Vicky leads initiatives that drive innovation and sustainability within the food industry. Her work focuses on leveraging financial solutions to support the development and scaling of cutting-edge food technologies, ensuring a resilient, equitable and sustainable food system for the future. Vicky is a passionate advocate for integrating technology and finance to address global food challenges and is committed to fostering collaborations that deliver systemic change. Vicky is a Henley Business School qualified executive coach and mentor.
CEO, New Wave Biotech
Zoe Yu Tung Law is a biotech entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in corporate venture building, helping Fortune 500 companies launch new ventures. She now brings that operational and strategic expertise to the biomanufacturing sector as Co-Founder & CEO of New Wave Biotech. The company accelerates sustainable bioprocess development through AI-driven simulation tools, helping innovators reduce experimental costs, improve yields, and get to market faster. Her leadership blends scientific understanding with entrepreneurial grit, making complex biotech challenges more accessible and actionable for founders and research-led ventures.
Please look at the table below for the dedicated time required in each phase:
Phase 1-Mindset & Momentum (in person) | 2 days | 2 full days (in person) |
Phase 2-Venture Forge (online) | 1month | ~6h + at least 1h with mentor |
Phase 3- Concept to Company (online) | 2 weeks | ~5h + 1h with mentor |
Phase 4-First sapling (in person) | 1 day | 1 day |
The SEED programme requires a minimum time commitment of 3 full days in person, plus 13 hours across 2 months for scheduled sessions. However, your overall success will depend on the additional time you invest in applying what you learn. Mentor engagement is flexible and will vary depending on your initiative and the relationship you build with them.
Yes, the idea must relate to alternative proteins or help grow the alternative protein sector, but it doesn’t need to be an alternative protein itself. For example, a new processing technology that improves taste or texture of alternative protein would qualify.
No. Your idea can come from your current, past, or future work- as long as it does not involve IP owned by anyone else.
Yes, your idea can begin as a fundamental scientific question, but it must be linked to a real-world application to show commercial potential. As the programme progresses, you may also find opportunities to combine your idea with those of other participants.
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We understand that circumstances may change and if you can no longer join us please contact us at [email protected].
If you have a query please use the enquiry form to contact us or email [email protected].