Recipient Organization
VIREO ADVISORS LLC
111 PERKINS ST
JAMAICA PLAIN,MA 02130
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Cultured meat and seafood (CM) products provide an opportunity to help meet growing global demand for nutritious, sustainable, and safe protein sources. As with every new technology, safety demonstration is critical to bringing CM products to market and gaining public acceptance. CM products that have already been authorized in the US and abroad do not encompass the full range of potential processes and products and only mark the start of such assessments. Currently, the paucity of standardized safety methods and data requires start-ups to conduct duplicative, resource-intensive research and regulators to use a case-by-case approach to safety evaluations, which can be burdensome. Through the Cultured Meat Safety Initiative, Vireo Advisors and New Harvest clearly outlined research priorities for safety demonstration as identified by global industry and governmental stakeholders (Ong et al., 2021, Ong et al., 2023).This workshop series will convene stakeholders to create a research action plan and initiate research. Discussions will be tailored to participants of each workshop, and aim to foster relationship-building and refine research priority areas into a research action plan, including actionable hypotheses and potential leaders/collaborators. Outputs from the workshops include a research action plan, several articles synthesizing outcomes and providing insights on key topics from workshop discussions, and working groups. This workshop series is an important first step towards a global, coordinated research effort to address safety priorities and develop shared data to support transparent food risk assessments and policy-making processes, advance safety demonstration, and promote access to safer and more sustainable foods.
Animal Health Component
70%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
70%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this workshop series is to create a multi-stakeholder community and advance a common understanding of the state of cultivated meat and seafood (CM) safety knowledgebase and the key data gaps and questions toward collaborative and pre-competitive research on the safety of cultured meat and seafood, including identifying research needs (e.g., materials, knowledge, equipment, funding, partnerships) and frameworks (e.g., public-private structures, IP protections) for conducting research on participant-selected safety questions. This goal will be achieved through four objectives:To convene diverse stakeholders, including leading global experts from diverse disciplines (e.g., food safety, food science, nutrition, cell biology, toxicology, microbiology, chemistry) from the sectors of academia, industry, and government to advance knowledge and understanding on critical CM safety issues who otherwise would not have the opportunity to meet.To engage stakeholders to address CM safety knowledge gaps by developing a research action plan. Research priority areas were outlined in our recent publications and other field-wide resources. The workshop will engage participants to inventory the work that has been done to date, and define specific priority research projects and needs (e.g., knowledge, materials, equipment).To foster relationships amongst diverse individuals that will grow multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral networks to address CM safety research priorities through coordinated research efforts. Relationship building during the workshop is expected to give rise to research collaborations in the near term and support future safety research for CM. To develop and disseminate a manuscript outlining an action plan for collaborative and pre-competitive research resulting from the workshop series that is widely accessible and will accelerate safety demonstration for the whole field while protecting IP concerns of participants. Key outcomes from individual workshops will be shared in the form of white papers or blog posts.
Project Methods
Workshop goals and objectives will be achieved through an integrated suite of activities during workshop preparation, execution, and follow-up.Workshop preparation(1) Dates and Locations: The series will consist of three one-day workshops in Q4 2024, and Q1 and Q2 of 2025. Preparation will begin 2-3 months in advance of each workshop. Workshops will be held throughout the US and co-located with other conferences on CM or food safety where possible to maximize accessibility to relevant stakeholders. (2) Method of Announcement/Invitation: The workshop organizing committee will identify experts from the US and abroad from diverse fields and conduct outreach to invitees at least two months in advance of the first workshop to share logistical details for registering and attending the workshop, and workshop goals and objectives. Participant outreach will prioritize the use of targeted methods (e.g., one-on-one outreach) intended to ensure that group discussions focus on developing actionable steps for conducting research on CM safety, although less specific approaches (e.g., announcements in select newsletters and alternative protein publications, posts on New Harvest and Vireo Advisors' websites and social media) may also be used.(3) A pre-workshop survey will collect information on participant areas of expertise, topics of interest, and requested accommodations (e.g., food options for individuals with dietary restrictions, dependent-care resources, supplies/equipment/materials for individuals with disabilities). Participants may indicate if they are interested in receiving travel support via the pre-workshop survey.(4) The organizing committee will prepare and provide attendees with relevant publications and other safety resources, as well as a summary of identified research priorities and agenda, prior to the event.Workshop execution and proposed program(5) Each workshop of the series will be one day. Lunch and coffee breaks will be provided to further facilitate discussion and relationship-building among participants.(6) The workshops will be conducted under Chatham House rules (whereby comments will be captured but not attributed to any specific attendee) to promote open discussion.(7) Workshop organizers will set up five tables, each with a printout focused on one of the five research areas and related discussion topics.(8) Workshops will begin with introductory presentations on the convening objectives, workshop format, and current status of CM safety research. These presentations are intended to advance a common knowledge of the current status of CM safety research, define knowledge gaps, and prepare participants for discussions about ways to coordinate/collaborate to address knowledge gaps.(9) Introductory presentations will be followed by three rounds of discussions in which participants progressively refine safety research topics into specific, actionable questions they would like to research. These discussions will also serve as opportunities for relationship-building among participants. Specific discussion topics will be tailored to participant background.The first set of discussions will be a group brainstorming session where participants freely contribute comments and ideas for specific safety research questions by adding sticky notes to prepared worksheets on each research area/subtopic. Participants may also share names of individuals/organizations well-positioned to conduct the research, as well as potential research needs/challenges. Workshop facilitators will be available to guide participants through the activity.(10) In the second set of discussions, participants will engage in three 20-minute breakout sessions on research topics of their choosing. Potential discussion questions at this stage include:What specific research questions need to be addressed to demonstrate CM safety?What are the challenges/barriers to demonstrating safety for this topic?What data and methods are needed to address these challenges?What materials and skills are needed?Is this question of regulatory, consumer, or academic importance?Workshop facilitators at each table will capture participant input. At the end of this second set of discussions, participants will share key discussion points and vote on the research questions they would like to focus on in the third set of discussions.(11) During a 1-hour lunch break after the second set of discussions, facilitators will review printouts and identify common themes and research questions. Workshop facilitators will identify priority research areas to discuss in the third set of discussions based on participant feedback.(12) The third set of discussions (45 minutes) will focus on developing and refining ideas generated in the first and second set of discussions into a focused list of specific research questions, toward creating a research action plan. Research questions will be prioritized considering their importance to demonstrating CM safety as well as participant interest. Additional potential discussion questions at this stage include:What research questions are of immediate importance? (i.e., required for safety demonstration of current products or products that will be available in the near future)What research questions are participants interested in working on?Who is well-positioned to do this work, including those not present at the workshop? (e.g., standards institutes, consumers, governmental scientists, non-profits)How can challenges/barriers to doing this work be overcome? (e.g., IP protections, funding opportunities, collaborations)How can CMSI support this work? What resources would be helpful for a consortium to provide?(13) The workshop will conclude with an overview of opportunities for ongoing engagement, including opportunities to lead or contribute to research projects and participate in working groups, and a post-workshop feedback survey, and a networking hour.Workshop follow-up(14) Immediately after each workshop, facilitators will collect the workshop notes and analyze them for actionable next steps and to facilitate potential collaborations.(15) A survey will be sent to workshop participants to collect feedback on the workshop and to collect additional information on interest in active participation in collaborative safety research (e.g., working groups focusing on particular safety research topics).(16) Additional post-workshop analysis and follow-up meetings will occur in the 1-2 months following workshop execution.(17) Key findings from individual workshops will be shared through blog posts, white papers, and other publications. Outcomes for the entire workshop series will be synthesized in the form of an open-access published manuscript. We will also share workshop findings at future conferences.New Harvest and Vireo websites will continue to be a focal point for sharing work related to CM safety, including opportunities to collaborate on CM safety research throughout the rest of CMSI Phase 3. Networks such as LinkedIn and other social media will be used to increase reach. Additionally, CMSI will provide on-going support to, and coordinate research efforts amongst, existing and new CMSI affiliates. CMSI will also oversee and support CM safety research working groups towards the development of standardized, publicly available data.