Context

Accelerating the transition from animal-based to alternative dietary proteins – the dietary shift – is key to reducing the footprint of our food system in terms of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), energy, water and land use, and other relevant environmental impacts, and for improving the health and well-being of people, animals and the planet. GIANT LEAPS delivers the strategic innovations, methodologies, and open-access datasets to speed up this dietary shift, in line with the Farm-to-Fork strategy and contributing to the Green Deal target of reaching climate neutrality by 2050. Achieving the dietary shift in practice is inherently complex due to the diverse set of actors involved and further hindered by major knowledge gaps, scattered across the various alternative protein sources and the domains of health (safety, allergenicity and digestibility), environment (GHGs and other environmental and climate impacts, biodiversity, circularity), and/ or barriers to adoption (technological, sensory, and consumer acceptance). The GIANT LEAPS consortium consists of the key actors and spans all expertise to address relevant knowledge gaps and proactively engages to arrive at optimised future diets based on alternative proteins that are broadly accepted across stakeholder groups. In order to deliver required insights for short-, mid- and long-term decision making and impact, GIANT LEAPS protein sources have been selected for either targeted or full assessment based on their current level of specification. The innovations and improved methods combined with accessible and comprehensive information, generated for a wide collection of alternative proteins, will enable policymakers to prioritise changes in the food system towards the dietary shift based on desired impact, value chain actors to make strategic scientific, business and investment choices, and the general public to make more sustainable and healthy dietary choices.

Objectives

GIANT LEAPS aims to accelerate the adoption of healthy and sustainable alternative proteins and support a dietary shift across Europe. The project will deliver open-access methodologies, datasets, and innovations to empower stakeholders in making future-proof, high-impact decisions – from consumer-accepted policies to cutting-edge technologies.

To achieve this, the project pursues the following specific objectives (SOs):

Activities

GIANT LEAPS adopts a multi-actor, co-creation methodology integrated across all work packages and activities. The project builds on early engagement with a diverse Stakeholder Board (SB), which helped define the main research questions and will continue to shape the research process throughout the project. WP1 coordinates this engagement, supported by all partners, and facilitates interactive multi-actor workshops involving key groups such as consumer associations, primary producers, the food industry, retail/hospitality, public health authorities, risk assessors, and policymakers.

This stakeholder engagement ensures the project delivers insights and solutions relevant to real-world needs, maximising collective impact. The SB will expand over time, contributing to a sustainable stakeholder platform that supports continued dialogue and uptake beyond the project.

Research focuses on nine alternative protein sources—lentils, faba beans, oat, quinoa, rapeseed, microalgae, single-cell bacteria, insects, and cultured meat. These are chosen to address knowledge gaps, particularly for protein sources not yet widely adopted in European diets. Additionally, novel alternative proteins will be assessed for safety in an exploratory manner. Unlike past studies that centred on single sources, GIANT LEAPS takes a holistic approach, targeting optimal alternatives tailored to specific cultures and target groups across Europe.

To support a meaningful dietary shift, the project emphasises that alternative proteins should replace—not add to—traditional animal proteins, especially in Europe where protein intake is already excessive. WP1 conducts quantitative consumer research in four European regions to uncover consumer drivers, barriers, and preferences, including crucial factors such as naturalness, healthiness, sensory attributes, price, animal welfare, and environmental impact.

This consumer insight feeds directly into WP2 (food prototype development) and WP7 (modelling future dietary scenarios), ensuring alignment between innovation and public acceptance. Cultural aspects are prioritised as major influencers of dietary choices, with region-specific research helping tailor interventions and communication.

GIANT LEAPS also explores the role of policy and regulation in facilitating dietary change. The project investigates the public acceptance of various policy measures—from "soft" nudges to "hard" fiscal tools like taxes—enabling a comparative analysis of strategies across the EU. These findings will support the design of science-based, socially acceptable food policies.

The project further integrates state-of-the-art methods and datasets across safety, digestion, nutrition, and sustainability domains. This includes creating a cloud-based data platform for secure data sharing (WP6), risk assessment tools (WP3), digestion models validated by human studies (WP4), and environmental assessment of value chains (WP5). Ultimately, all outputs will contribute to a robust modelling framework (WP7) to quantify the health and planetary impacts of future diets.