Call for projects 2026
Ferments du Futur is launching its 4th pre-competitive call for projects.
The objective is to overcome scientific and technological barriers that slow down innovation in the fields of ferments and fermented foods.
ELIGIBILITY
- This call for projects is open to all French public research institutions, as well as Technical Institutes affiliated with ACTIA. The companies, including startups, are not eligible.
- To achieve this, transdisciplinary and collaborative approaches are strongly encouraged. The project's ability to lead to proof of concept or even protectable results (patents, know-how, etc.) by the end of the project (TRL 3-4) will be assessed during the selection process.
- Project coordinators have priority access to equipment funded by FdF at its innovation centre (CI2F) in Orsay and its distributed platforms (PFD) across 7 INRAE units, by contacting FdF to check equipment availability and costs.
- FdF can fund approximately 6 projects, each with a maximum individual amount of €250,000 and a maximum duration of 2 years.
Two-Phase Selection Process
PHASE 1
Submission of a two-page letter of intent in English, following the proposed template.
Submission deadline:
PHASE 2
Submission of a complete five-page exploratory project in English, following the proposed template.
Submission deadline:
Two exchange sessions with FdF Members will be held on December 18, 2025, and January 19, 2026. These optional sessions aim to provide an initial presentation of the proposed project to the Members in order to gather preliminary feedback ahead of the submission of the letter of intent.
THEMES OF THE 2026 CALL FOR PROJECTS
This year, the call for projects consists of a General section and a Thematic section.
The General section covers FdF’s four strategic areas:
- The exploration and integration of functions originating from natural microbiodiversity
- Implementation of optimized fermentation processes up to the pilot scale, including precision fermentation
- The optimization of interactions between fermented foods, microbiota, and health
- A cross-disciplinary use of data science, artificial intelligence, and social sciences
As for the Thematic section, the proposed topics must address one of the following themes:
- Optimization, profitability, and sustainability of fermentation processes
- Modeling approaches to optimize production and functional outcomes
- Precision fermentation and microbial engineering
For its third edition in 2025, Ferments du Futur has selected six projects. Learn more about them here!
