Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research — Chickpea and Corn Zein Research

[Alternatives to Animal Products] Grant investigators: Chris Somerville and Lewis Bollard This page was reviewed but not written by the grant investigator. Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) staff also reviewed this page prior to publication. Open Philanthropy recommended a grant of $444,000 over three years to the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) to support research on optimizing plant protein for use in plant-based meat. This funding is intended to support protein optimization in chickpeas, led by NuCicer, and research into improving corn zein’s functionality for plant-based meat, led by Professor Bruce Hamaker of Purdue University. Both projects were submitted as part of FFAR’s request for proposals, which we co-funded in April 2020. This falls within our focus areas of farm animal welfare. The chickpea portion of this research represents a match of a similar grant from the scientific research program.