NatLifE 2020 Alliance Partners Look Back On Successful Year At 2017 Annual Meeting

The NatLife 2020 strategic alliance, co-financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), took up its work in 2013. Harnessing the full potential of biotechnology and understand-ing biological systems, the alliance seeks to develop a new generation of sustainably produced and biologically active ingredients for the food and cosmetics industries, which in turn will notably improve the nutrition, health, well being and lives of people. An interim evaluation at the end of the first funding phase was successfully passed in late 2015. The second funding period was kicked off in March 2016.

Based on the research results from the first funding phase, the second funding period now focuses on the development of bioactive substances along the entire value-added chain. The activities contin-ue to benefit from an open exchange of information and pre-competitive synergies within the alliance.

BRAIN AG has managed the NatLife 2020 efforts right from the word go. However, there was a slight change in the line-up of the 22 alli-ance partners at the outset of the second funding period, as Henkel AG & Co. KGaA and Phyton Biotech GmbH joined the alliance, as did the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Marine Biotechnology and Cell Technology.

At the annual meeting held in Lübeck at Fraunhofer EMB on 8 and 9 February 2017, speakers and participants alike praised the fruitful integration of the new partners. The alliance partners also agreed that all research and development efforts organised in the four sub-programmes continue to be on the right track. For instance, the alli-ance managed to expand their natural taste modulator portfolio of candidates to include substances that reduce a bitter off-taste in foodstuffs. Among other things, the past few months have also seen the development of lower energy density foods, characterized by e.g. a significantly lower fat content.

The NatLife 2020 alliance development phase is scheduled to last three years and will end on 28 February 2019. This period will then be followed by another three-year period, known as the pilot phase or Phase 3. Prior to the start of this period, in late 2018, the research and development results will once more be reviewed by a panel of experts appointed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Further information:
NatLifE 2020 Strategic Alliance Given Go-Ahead After Successful Interim Review: www.brain-biotech.de/en/press/erfolgreiche-zwischenevaluierung-der-strategischen-allianz-natlife-2020/.