Establishment of an International In Vitro Meat Consortium

Etablishment of an international In Vitro Meat Consortium was initiated at a workshop held at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences June 15, 2007. Specialists in different research fields, including bioreactors, food technology and in vitro culturing of pig, cattle and fish cells, from several European countries attended the meeting:
  • Bruria Funkenstein (Dept. of Marine Biology & Biotechnology, Israel Oceanographic & Limnological Research, Haifa, Israel)
  • Wilfried Kues (representing Heiner Niemann, Institute for Animal Science, Mariensee, Neustadt, Germany)
  • Stig Omholt* (CIGENE – Centre for Integrative Genetics, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), Norway)
  • Bernard Roelen* (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, Netherlands)
  • Erik Slinde (Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway)
  • Jose Teixeira* (Dept. of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal)
  • Colin Murphy (Research Division, UMB, Norway)
  • Liv Torunn Mydland (APC – Aquaculture Protein Centre, UMB, Norway)
  • Anders Skrede (APC – Aquaculture Protein Centre, UMB, Norway)
The following were unable to attend this meeting, but lend their full support to this initiative:
  • Catherine Verfaillie (Interdepartementaal Stamcelinstituut O&N I, Leuven, Belgium)
  • Henk Haagsman (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, Netherlands)
  • Willem van Eelen* (Vitro Meat BV, Amsterdam, Netherlands)
  • Gunnar Kleppe* (Statoil Asa, Stavanger, Norway)

The delegates marked with * were appointed as members of the interim steering committee.

Establishment of the In Vitro Meat Consortium

 The interim steering committee was given the following mandate:

  1. Establish a web-based project management tool for the consortium where every member has access and where the activities of the interim committee can be assessed.
  2. Establish a website as soon as possible. (http://invitromeat.org/)
  3. Identify the full range of academic and industrial competences that are needed for this undertaking, and acquire these competences under the umbrella of the consortium as soon as possible.
  4. Develop funding strategies and associated action plans (FP7 Activity in 2009, philanthropic funding, national funding, and personal donations).
  5. Perform a feasibility analysis assessing how cheaply we will be able to produce a cell culture medium as well as an in vitro meat product under a few industrial scale scenarios.
  6. Draft a document describing vision statement, organizational structure, consortium rules and patent pool arrangements.

The interim phase is anticipated to end with the arrangement of a workshop in early 2008 whereby:

  1. Consortium organizational structure is settled and where people are elected to the various leadership positions defined by this structure.
  2. The scientific and industrial challenges are examined and defined.
  3. Strategies are consolidated.