ALT-PROACT: ALTernative PROteins – Awareness, Co-creation, Transformation

The future of biotechnology-based alternative proteins — offered alongside or in place of meat, milk and eggs — depends not just on public trust but on genuine dialogue and shared ownership of this transition. Recognizing that attitudes vary across protein types and cultural contexts, the EU-funded ALT-PROACT project moves beyond one-way communication towards co-creation and deliberation, using a multilingual, evidence-based approach to raise awareness, deepen understanding of sustainability implications, and counter misinformation. Working with local actors, the project will run citizen forums, deliberative workshops, and storytelling labs, co-create public awareness campaigns, and develop culturally sensitive educational materials for schools and communities. By equipping journalists, educators, and policymakers as trusted intermediaries, ALT-PROACT fosters informed, democratically anchored decision-making around biotech-based proteins.

The ALT-PROACT project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101286996.

EUFIC’s role in ALT-PROACT is broad and involve different departments. Consumer research team will take care to design and deploy a cross-country survey to identify alternative proteins socio-economic and cultural drivers of acceptance. The content team will manage the Communication Lab to co-develop new approaches for communicating alternative proteins with lay audiences. Collaborative projects team will take care of FoodFacts, a science-based advisory group that will support the developments of materials and outputs. EUFIC will also prepare a policy brief about citizen engagement and science communication.

Debora Serra, Collaborative projects senior manager, debora.serra@eufic.org

Frederic Bayer, Content and outreach manager, frederic.bayer@eufic.org

Amber Peeters, Research manager, amber.peeters@eufic.org