EIT Food joins AB4S coalition to highlight the potential of advanced biotechnology

EIT Food has joined McKinsey Institute and ten other leading organisations to form the Advanced Biotechnology for Sustainability (AB4S) coalition, which aims to unlock the economic and environmental benefits of advanced biotechnology. Through its novel report “Harnessing the economic and environmental benefits of advanced biotechnology”. AB4S provides insights and recommendations to help governments, industry, and investors set priorities and create a bold, unified vision for advanced biotechnology in the food value chain.

The power of advanced biotechnology

The report reveals the power of advanced biotechnology which if scaled could:

• Create ~$1 trillion (roughly the GDP of Switzerland)
• Save 3-4 gigatons of CO2 (the equivalent of 3x the global aviation emissions)
• Free up 2-4 million km² of land (equivalent to the size of India)
• Reduce water use by 150-500 billion m³ (equivalent to 3-6x all the water flowing through the Nile River)

The coalition’s shared goal is to scale advanced biotechnology by fostering collaboration among stakeholders, unlocking investments, boosting confidence in advanced solutions, and supporting commercial scaling.

Harnessing advanced biotechnology

The AB4S coalition also analyses the challenges which must be addressed to advance and scale biotechnology, including the need for large-scale production, securing sufficient funding, overcoming the cost disadvantage compared to conventional alternatives, and navigating regulatory and consumer acceptance barriers.

For advanced biotechnology to achieve its full market and sustainability potential the report outlines three main priorities for the industry:

1. Market-demand-based priorities by focusing on products with the highest potential.
2. Derisk the scaling process by testing production for industrial conditions with continuous learning loops and stage-gate logic and partnering along the value chain to share risk and secure finance and offtake.
3. Ensure cost-effectiveness at scale through operational and capital excellence and technological breakthroughs.

Enabling concepts

Across these three priorities, AB4S’ findings suggest that the industrialisation of advanced biotechnology at a renewed pace and scale will rely on three enabling concepts:

1. Reduction of variables, by minimising the variety of overall approaches across business and technology to focus resources efficiently.
2. Standardisation, with the creation of uniformity across processes, tools, roles, and technology to streamline operations, development, and scaling.
3. Shift to “low tech” deployment, through the transition of advanced biotech from high-tech development to cost-effective, repeatable deployment of mature technology with mature and predictable supply chains while focusing on solutions that are easily replicable.

Only by focusing on these priorities and leveraging collaborative efforts can the advanced biotechnology sector achieve its full potential.