The Center of Excellence in Food, Tourism & Leisure (CoEFTL) of the American College of Greece Research Center (ACG-RC) participated in the EPIC-SHIFT 2nd General Assembly, held on March 24–25, 2026, in Barcelona, Spain; a key milestone marking the project’s halfway point and the close of its first 18-month reporting period.
Representatives of the CoEFTL gathered in Barcelona alongside partners from across Europe to review the progress of the EPIC-SHIFT Horizon Europe project, coordinate efforts ahead of the forthcoming technical review, and exchange findings from each consortium member’s ongoing work. The two-day assembly brought together 20 partner institutions from 14 countries to take stock of what has been achieved since the project’s launch in November 2024, align on the path toward the M18 reporting deadline, and look ahead to the second half of the project.
What Is EPIC-SHIFT?
EPIC-SHIFT is a Horizon Europe-funded research project with a total budget of €4.5 million and a 36-month timeline. Coordinated by Deniz Koca of Lund University, the project brings together a consortium of 20 partners with the shared goal of building a robust, independent knowledge base on the sustainability of Novel Foods from Alternative Protein Sources (NFAP), which are foods derived from insects, fungi, bacteria, algae, and agricultural and aquaculture by-products.
The project operates from a food systems perspective, conducting multidimensional and integrated assessments (environmental, technological, social, and economic) of these novel protein categories. Underpinning its work is a commitment to the quadruple helix innovation model and multi-actor engagement, drawing on academia, industry, government, and civil society alike. Ultimately, EPIC-SHIFT aims to develop strategies and tools for integrating NFAP into future European diets and food value chains, contributing to a more sustainable and resilient food system.
The ACG-RC, through the CoEFTL, is an active partner in this consortium, leading Work Package 3 (WP3) on Economic Impact and contributing to Work Package 5 (WP5) on Societal Considerations.
The Assembly: Two Days of Substance in the Catalan Capital
Before the formal proceedings began, consortium members convened for an optional dinner at one of Barcelona’s oldest establishments, where they were fueled by fresh seafood and delicious paella that set them up for two days of shared work. The CoEFTL team found the city itself a memorable host: the vibrant capital of Catalonia, with its unmistakable Art Nouveau architecture, its street life, and its culinary traditions, left a strong impression.
Coordinator Deniz Koca opened the proceedings by reaffirming the project’s core ambition: to build a credible, independent knowledge base on NFAP sustainability and use it to map realistic trajectories for integrating alternative proteins into European diets. Partner teams then shared progress across the consortium’s work packages, spanning the project’s knowledge hub for alternative proteins, ongoing environmental and economic sustainability assessments of NFAP production supply chains, consumer and societal considerations surrounding novel food adoption, integrated impact assessment, and communication and dissemination strategy.
Among the highlights from WP3 was the T3.1 presentation on the market potential of seven key alternative protein types: fungi, bacteria, insects, microalgae, macroalgae, food by-products, and aquaculture by-products. Fungi, bacteria, microalgae, and food by-products emerged as the strongest combination of technical feasibility and market fit, with bakery products, snacks, and dairy-like matrices among the most credible early applications. The analysis also surfaced a practical challenge central to any commercialisation effort: an alternative protein cannot simply replace a conventional one on a one-to-one basis in an existing product formula, as the functional properties of each ingredient, whether emulsifying, gelling, or otherwise, need to match the specific demands of the application. Hybrid formulations combining different NFAPs are likely to offer a practical path forward.
The second day turned to financial alignment, budget review, and a structured action plan for M18 midterm reporting, ahead of the project review meeting later during the summer.
CoEFTL’s Role and What the Team Presented
The CoEFTL was represented at the 2nd GA by Athanasios Krystallis, Executive Director of the CoEFTL and Director of the ACG Research Center; Polymeros Chrysochou, visiting fellow; and Stavroula Ziavras, research assistant.
As leader of WP3, the CoEFTL holds a central coordinating role in the project’s economic strand. Within this work package, the CoEFTL team presented the progress of Task 3.2 – Market Dynamics, which focuses on identifying the factors that drive success or failure for newly launched NFAP products in real markets. Building on existing EU-funded research and extending it with a focus on actual commercial launches, the task analyses the marketing strategies employed by companies and start-ups, evaluates how the novel foods category should be defined to support sustained market growth, and conducts industry dialogue to cross-validate the findings.
The analysis draws on continuous product-level pricing and attribute data across five plant-based and alternative protein categories (plant-based ice cream, cheese, milk, yoghurt, and meat alternatives) sourced from 13 European countries over a 45-month period (January 2022 to October 2025). Using a discrete time hazard model, the team calculates the conditional probability that a product exits the market in a given month, given that it has survived up to that point.
At this stage, the team presented preliminary results, using the plant-based yoghurt category as an illustrative example. The findings point to meaningful differences in product survival depending on protein ingredient, packaging type, sustainability certifications, and the specificity of health and nutritional claims, thus offering early signals of what tends to support or undermine market longevity for novel food products.
The practical value of this work lies in its direct applicability: by understanding what characterizes long-surviving products in each category, the project can offer concrete guidance to producers and marketers developing NFAP products. For each of the novel ingredients under investigation, the analyses provide a reference point for the kind of marketing mix (positioning, labelling, packaging, certification) most likely to support survival in competitive European markets.
Why This Project Matters…and for Whom
Protein diversification is one of the most significant transitions facing European food systems. As the environmental costs of animal-based protein production become increasingly apparent and regulatory frameworks evolve to accommodate novel food categories, the question of how to bring alternative proteins to market in a way that is economically viable, socially accepted, and environmentally sound has become pressing.
EPIC-SHIFT addresses that question from multiple angles simultaneously. Its findings are relevant to a broad range of stakeholders:
- food businesses and start-ups navigating the novel foods market
- farmers interested in an active involvement in emerging protein innovation value chains
- investors weighing the commercial potential of alternative protein categories
- policymakers developing strategies to support the EU protein agenda
- researchers and innovation intermediaries mapping the sustainability landscape
- environmental advocates looking for ways to reduce the ecological footprint of protein production
- consumers whose dietary choices are shaped by what reaches their supermarket shelves and how it is communicated to them.
Looking Ahead
EPIC-SHIFT has come a long way since its official kickoff in November 2024. The 2nd General Assembly offered a clear picture of how much the consortium has advanced across its work packages and how the collective efforts of 20 partners from 14 countries are beginning to cohere into something genuinely useful: an integrated, independent knowledge base on novel foods from alternative protein sources. There is still much to do in the project’s second half, but the foundations are well-established and the direction is clear. We look forward to sharing further insights as the work progresses.
The CoEFTL team would like to thank the team at Lund University, led by coordinator Deniz Koca, for organizing a well-structured and productive General Assembly that gave all partners the space to share progress frankly and to plan ahead with clarity. We are grateful to all project partners for the thoroughness and openness with which they presented their work and engaged in the cross-WP discussions that make a consortium of this scale genuinely collaborative. We also extend our thanks to the external experts whose contributions on EU research governance, ethics, and the state of the alternative protein sector in Europe enriched the assembly’s conversations.
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