New funding supports more sustainable animal feed
The European Union’s Horizon Europe has awarded nearly €5.5M funding to the PROFEED project, which researches sustainable plant proteins for animal feed.
‘PROFEED Progressive Solutions for European Feed Autonomy through Sustainable Plant Protein Value Chains’ is a four-year Horizon Europe project starting on 1st October 2026.
It aims to accelerate Europe’s transition towards locally sourced, sustainable plant proteins for animal feed. This will reduce dependence on imported soy and make European farming and food systems more resilient.
Europe currently imports almost 96% of its high‑protein feed sources, which makes it vulnerable to disruptions in the supply chain and has a high environmental impact.
PROFEED addresses this challenge by developing viable, climate‑resilient and biodiversity‑friendly alternatives that align with the EU Green Deal, Farm to Fork Strategy and EU Protein Plan.
PROFEED, led by Associate Professor Christine Bosch in the School of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Leeds has established an interdisciplinary network of 15 partners from 8 countries following the Multi-Actor Approach, including collaborators across the animal feed supply chain, from crop breeding to feed processing, animal nutrition and policymaking.
Partners include Universidad de Murcia, The James Hutton Institute, Biopower Technologies Limited, Horizon Europe Leading Projects SL, IDENER Research & Development AIE, Universidade Catolica Portugesa, Celabor SCRL, Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm, EUFARMS - Réseau Européen des Fermes Agroécologiques / European Network of Regenerative Organic Farms, Cer Groupe, Centre Wallon de Recherches Agronomiques, Instituto Murciano de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario y Medioambiental, Centro Ricerche Produzioni Animali Soc. Cons. p.A., and NOFIMA AS.
Partners include Universidad de Murcia, The James Hutton Institute, Biopower Technologies Limited, and many more academic and industry partners across Europe.
The project will include work with 40 farmers in Communities of Practice, as well as 10 ‘lighthouse sites’ across countries, in which participants will co‑design improvements and solutions under real‑world conditions.
Using state‑of‑the‑art plant growth facilities, PROFEED will study soybean, lupin and alfalfa crops under current and future climate scenarios. The most promising varieties will be tested on farms in Spain, the UK, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, France and Italy.
The project will also trial feed formulations with pigs, poultry and aquaculture species, to reduce soy use by up to 30%.
PROFEED will deliver an open‑access database of the animal feed supply chain across Europe, policy recommendations, and a multilingual training programme to increase farmer capacity and position Europe as a leader in sustainable protein production.
Find out more on the European Commission website.
Project details
Project number: 101286912
Project name: Progressive Solutions for European Feed Autonomy through Sustainable Plant Protein Value Chains
Project acronym: ProFEED
Call: HORIZON-CL6-2025-02
Topic: HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-04
Type of action: HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Granting authority: European Research Executive Agency
Project starting date: fixed date: 1 October 2026
Project end date: 30 September 2030
Project duration: 48 months
EU contribution: € 5 499 839,69
Funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement no. 101286912. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
