Cellular Agriculture Netherlands (CAN) explains how the Netherlands is leading the way in innovation in cellular agriculture and urges Europe to pay attention to enabling the cellular agriculture ecosystem to flourish.
The next leap forward in Europe’s food resilience will not come from one moonshot lab or one unicorn. It’s a collaborative ecosystem of education, research, and scale-up infrastructure that emerges from the capabilities that safely and quickly turn ideas into food ingredients, ingredients into food, and products into dinner. This is the bet the Netherlands made on cellular agriculture (cell ag), and it’s paying off.
From project to capacity
Cellular agriculture, which produces animal proteins through precision fermentation or cell culture, sits at the intersection of food security, safety, diversity, sovereignty, sustainability, and growth. But across Europe, two opposing trends are shaping the outlook. One is a cautious investment environment, and the other is political headwinds. On the one hand, record levels of scientific activity and mature technology. In this environment, shared infrastructure is not a luxury. It is the bridge from promising science to practical markets.
This is where Cellular Agriculture Netherlands (CAN) comes into play. CAN is an independent foundation that convenes universities, applied science partners, start-ups, corporations, non-profit organizations (NGOs) and governments to build national capacity. We are open, collaborative, and focused on the journey from the lab to the production line.
What is CAN and why is the Dutch model important?
The Netherlands has a habit of solving difficult problems by building coalitions that share tools and knowledge. CAN is an expression of its cell proliferation habits. It is a neutral orchestrator that coordinates stakeholders and aligns three workstreams: education, research, and open access scale-up facilities, enabling people, ideas, and bioreactors to collaborate online. In 2024, these engines moved from planning to delivery.
Integrated program: education + research + scale-up
education
To build a production-ready workforce, the CAN Consortium launched its first master’s and post-master’s level courses earlier than expected, with stronger-than-expected student interest and solid ratings. Work has begun to bring HBO (applied science) modules online for the 2025/26 academic year, supported by labor market analysis that reveals the convergence of biotechnology, microbiology, cell biology, process engineering and data/QA/automation skills required by employers.
the study
Within a year, three assistant professor positions were filled at Delft University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and Maastricht University. Nine PhDs and five EngDs are ongoing across the core program, and an open call for NWOs is underway in preparation for widening participation across research institutions and industry. There is a set cycle of semi-annual education/research meetings, consortium governance, and spillovers/flows with neighboring initiatives.
Open access scale-up
In December 2024, the Netherlands approved two open access facilities: Culture at Scale (CaS) (cell culture) in Maastricht and Biotechnological Fermentation Factory (BFF) (precision fermentation) in Ede. Notably, more than 50% of the scale-up costs will be covered by private funding. This shows that if properly designed, shared infrastructure can concentrate capital instead of crowding it out. Both facilities are currently set up to accept external projects, delivering a 1,000L cell culture line and a 10,000L fermentation line on a defined schedule, with cooperation agreements creating synergies with education and research streams.
Credit: CC BY Ivy Farm
This integrated approach had a measurable impact on the overall program budget. The total cost of the CAN program, originally €84.8 million, is now more than €100 million thanks to higher cofinancing for scale-up. This is another sign that the ecosystem believes in the model.
Proof of momentum: pre-approval tasting, ripple effects, investment, and community
Tasting with safety first based on the domestic code of practice
CAN acts as the secretariat and coordination center for the tasting of cultivated foods prior to EU approval, and will be the first public tasting in the EU to bring together independent expert committees, companies and ministries. The framework is based on a published code of practice that has enabled multiple successful tastings in Dutch companies and is being extended to innovative fermentations in collaboration with partners. In parallel, Wageningen supports independent evaluations. It’s practical, transparent, and replicable.
Runoff to or from adjacent fields
We connect cellular agriculture with circular agriculture and regenerative medicine to explore common problem sets and collaborative projects. Researchers in the NGF program have already won additional competitive grants and collaborations, further increasing public investment.
Investment and industry signals
Investment has flowed in despite global headwinds, with notable capital rounds (e.g. tens of millions of dollars) in a major cellular agriculture player in the Netherlands. The first international cellular agriculture company has chosen the Netherlands as its base. Meanwhile, global milestones such as the rollout in Singapore, pending approval in Israel, and pet food approval in the UK create a realistic sense of timing for addressing the European market.
A community that builds trust
2024 saw the first national CAN community gathering and a jam-packed calendar of international panels, workshops, and publications with NGOs, standards bodies, and regional development agencies. In 2025, the CAN community, in collaboration with Invest-NL (government-backed investments) and the APROVALS consortium (advocating smoother regulatory pathways), organized CANference, bringing together even more complementary networks working in the same direction. The purpose is not to hype. It’s literacy for regulators, financiers, farmers, students, and consumers so they can debate benefits and risks based on the same facts.
Why it works: Open and efficient
At the heart of the Dutch approach is openness with discipline. Open access infrastructure reduces duplication, improves quality, and shortens the path to first product. A national curriculum designed in collaboration with employers puts the right technicians, engineers, data scientists and quality professionals in the field. The core research will remain tied to practical bioreactors and practical scale-up constraints. The entire system is tied together by an independent, mission-focused foundation.
Building a shared infrastructure is no small task. There may be friction, misalignment, and even long nights over bioreactor specifications, but that’s exactly what happens in real time.
The results are visible. The budget is expanded through private co-financing. International inbound interest. Course enrollment rate higher than planned. PhD/EngD pipeline. Operational nodes for cell culture and precision fermentation reduce the risk of moving from the lab to the production plant. In one word, it’s capacity.
If we do the right thing, Europe has an opportunity.
If Europe wants food security, diversity and sovereignty over the proteins that power its future, it must treat food biotechnology as a strategic capability. Three practical steps provide great value.
Keep “food” within the biotech focus. The EU’s biotechnology strategy and funding lines should explicitly include food applications right next to health and industry. This effectively frees up scale-up equipment, bioprocess talent, and shared QA/standards across the sector. Give EFSA clearer and faster powers for food biotechnology. We are not looking for safety shortcuts. Seek clarity and throughput. A review workflow with tailored guidance, predictable timelines, and resources for grown foods and precision fermented ingredients. This is the single biggest lever Europe has to control to transform its research base into safe and competitive products. Co-fund open access infrastructure and mobility. It supports a network of open facilities (such as CaS and BFF) across Member States, as well as cross-border calls and fellowships that allow students, PhDs/Eng., and SMEs to move to locations with equipment and expertise. Europe excels at connecting strong nodes.
What CAN offers and what we invite
CAN is a platform, not a gatekeeper. We coordinate tastings, manage our community, and coordinate education, research, and scale-up to help our talented teams progress faster. The open access facility is designed to serve start-ups, scale-up companies, and established food producers. The course is designed to supply skilled manpower to those facilities. And this research program is designed to eliminate real bottlenecks facing the industry.
We call on institutions, regions and foundations across Europe to expand, link and replicate this model. Connect to a pan-European network where you can build nodes, connect curriculum, co-fund open access capacity, perform safe tastings, validate processes and scale production responsibly. Once we achieve this, Europe will not only be debating the future of cellular agriculture, it will be a reality.
What if it isn’t? Science will continue to advance and insights will still be important. But products, factories and jobs will likely crystallize elsewhere. The choice is ours.
This article will also be published in the quarterly magazine issue 24.
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