Project description
High-performance insect genetics to ensure Black Soldier Fly animal feed takes off
Edible insects are nutritious and could be the best solution for animal feed, whose demand has been increasing globally. To answer the call, the UK company Beta Bugs is creating high performance Black Soldier Fly genetics for the 'insects as feed' market, which is estimated to be worth more than EUR 2 billion by 2030. The EU-funded CHiPInB project will ensure that the Beta Bugs solution is commercialised within Europe and that the company captures a significant market share. Based on the proposed technology, diverse strains will be maintained in parallel and phenotyped at high-throughput, increasing performance across multiple quantity traits including growth rate, size and protein quantity.
Objective
"Beta Bugs is the first insect breeding company focussed on creating high performance Black Soldier Fly (BSF) genetics for the rapidly emerging ""insects as feed"" market. This global market has received more than €480M in investment from private and public sector funders, and will be worth €2.15Bn by 2030. It also enables valorization of low-value food and agricultural waste streams into localized protein sources suitable for animal feed, making it of strategic importance to the EU's future food security since it will strengthen regional agri-food supply chains.
The company proposes a solution which combines proprietary trait generation methods, quantitative genetics and selective breeding, and high throughput phenotyping (trait measurement) using proprietary technologies. The company has developed a proprietary PLATform for TYPing of Insect Strains (PLATYPIS), which combines modular rearing technologies that enable parallel maintenance of diverse strains, and high-throughput phenotyping of the insects. This provides an opportunity for targeted genetic improvement efforts in BSF that can significantly improve BSF producer productivity (e.g. faster growth rate) and BSF protein quality (e.g. nutritional profiles tailored to different livestock).
As the first company focusing solely on genetics and catering to the whole market rather than in-house applications for one producer, this solution is uniquely placed to benefit from EIC Accelerator Funding. This will enable the skilled, specialized and committed Beta Bugs team to commercialize this solution, transforming the company into a highly impactful and profitable venture, capture significant market share and accelerate the development of the entire ""insects as feed"" industry.
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Fields of science
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgenetics
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutrition
- natural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyentomology
- agricultural sciencesanimal and dairy sciencedomestic animalsanimal husbandryanimal feed
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
CM4 9DW INGATESTONE ESSEX
United Kingdom
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.