The Food System Research Fund is inviting applications for its 2024
RFPs
FSRF is a small, targeted, animal advocacy research fund. We aim to
facilitate and disseminate research to accelerate a transition away from
an animal product-based food system.
We have issued seven RFPs and each is briefly detailed below. We also
welcome other proposals that align with our mission. Please review each
RFP in more detail
here, along with
FAQs and our policies.
The deadline for submission is September 1, 2024. We will notify
applicants of our initial decision after September 1st and by October
15th. We'll continue accepting applications after the deadline, but we
cannot guarantee the availability of funds or the same application
response time.
FSRF conducted its first round of funding in the summer of 2020 and many
projects have come to fruition. You can read about these projects
here, organized by
RFP.
Please feel free to contact us or
comment below if you have questions that are not answered on our
website.
Displacement -
Using consumer panels to estimate displacement of animal products by
plant-based analogues
A handful of recent studies have illustrated the promise of consumer
panel data for measuring the impact of plant-based analogues on animal
product sales (e.g., Cuffey, 2022; Slade, 2023). Proposals submitted
under this RFP should expand this body of work with innovative
methodologies and more diverse products.
Successful proposals will meet some if not all of the following
criteria:
-
Focus explicitly on causal inference by developing a target trial
(Hernán, 2016) and exploiting potential natural experiments or other
exogenous sources of randomness.
-
Suggest creative modeling approaches that take full advantage of the
available data. In particular, consumer panels.
-
Use outcome measures which correspond directly to purchasing
behavior rather than self-reports.
-
Examine plant-based analogues not yet widely explored in the
literature such as liquid eggs, ready-meals (pre-packaged complete
meals), coffee creamer and ice cream. Innovative work considering
plant-based milks and meats is also welcome. Consideration should be
given to the price differential between plant-based analogues and
their counterparts, with products approaching price parity of
particular interest.
Policy - Meat
policy case studies
Price parity is a major factor in widespread consumer adoption of animal
product alternatives, and these prices differ greatly by country. As
such, we would like to learn where and why those price differences
exist.
Successful proposals will address some or all of the following points:
-
Determine countries in which consumer prices of animal products
(meat, eggs, dairy) meat are higher than average relative to other
food items sold in the country.
-
Scope the range of government policies that have influenced animal
product prices, either increasing or decreasing the consumer price
-
Assess each policy in terms of its ability to increase costs
-
Assess the feasibility of implementing these policies elsewhere,
especially in highly populous countries
Cost of Goods - Full
cost of goods for animal products
The purpose of this RFP is to determine potential avenues for
influencing the price of animal products. Proposals submitted under this
RFP should scope and quantify the inputs and costs required to produce
meat. Our preferred scope is chicken and top-consumed fish species in
highly populous countries but could be narrowed..
Successful proposals should follow an approach similar to the following:
-
Determine the most compelling species and countries to analyze
-
Scope the full range of material inputs
-
Quantify the cost (percentage of total COGS) of each input per
animal
-
Assess the likely change or stability in cost of each input over the
next ten years under two assumptions: 1) business as usual, 2) rapid
reduction in demand
-
Assess each input in terms of opportunity to influence (increase or
decrease costs)
-
Assess each input for the potential to be redirected to a different
use, such as other food production
Economics -
Addressing knowledge gaps around the economics of the animal protein and
plant-based alternatives markets
A simple economic model suggests that the best way to reduce the
quantity of animal consumption is to increase its cost of production,
reduce demand, and increase demand elasticity by offering good
alternatives. Proposals submitted under this RFP should help quantify
this simple analysis.
Successful proposals will likely answer one or more of the following
questions, with those that are not based on self-reported survey data
are of particular interest:
-
What factors are affecting the cost structure and production of
producing animal proteins
-
What are the costs of producing plant-based alternatives and market
dynamics
-
What is the price elasticity of demand for various animal proteins
and how is this elasticity affected by the availability of
plant-based alternatives?
-
Understanding consumers as demand shifters
-
What are the current levels of consumer acceptance of
plant-based alternatives and fish welfare corporate campaigns
and can these be increased?
-
Are current plant-based products taking market share from meat,
and is this likely to be a lasting trend or just a novelty
effect?
-
What is the impact of organizational efforts to reduce animal
protein consumption taking into account the costs of conducting
them?
-
What is the impact of nomenclature laws restricting use of
terminology (such as "cheese", "milk", "meat") for plant-based
products?
-
Understanding food services as demand shifters
- What is the impact of organizational efforts aimed at changing
the balance between plant and animal-based meals in corporate
and public service food service companies taking into account
the costs of conducting them?
PLMICs -
Identifying paths to reducing growth in animal product consumption in
populous low and middle-income countries (PLMICs)
Rapid population growth combined with increasing wealth has led to
substantial acceleration in animal-based food production and consumption
in PLMICs. Proposals submitted under this RFP should contribute to a
base of foundational knowledge that will guide efforts to improve farmed
animal welfare in these countries and reduce or slow the growth of
consumption of animal products.
Successful proposals will likely answer one or more of the following
questions:.
-
What are the attitudes towards farmed animal welfare in PLMICs?
-
How can the plant-based alternatives industry in PLMICs be best
supported?
-
What makes up the cost of plant-based alternative foods in PLMICs
(such as plant-based meat and milk), and how do the costs of these
foods compare with the animal-based foods they are meant to replace?
-
How can common animal farming practices be changed in PLMICs?
-
What is the government's policy with respect to animal farming and
consumption? How much influence does the animal farming industry
have with the government? What approaches and methods could be used
to encourage the government to take measures to restrict growth of
animal-based consumption?
-
What can be done to attract more people to work on the reduction of
animal-based food consumption in PLMICs?
New Techniques -
Identifying new promising techniques to shift the food system towards
being more plant-based
Increasing global levels of animal product consumption are associated
with numerous negative outcomes. Proposals submitted under this RFP
should address the potential of novel advocacy areas or techniques as
well as other approaches to reduce reliance on animal products.
Successful proposals will likely answer one or more of the following
questions:
-
What is the potential of non-conventional ways of reducing animal
product consumption, such as reducing food waste and altering pet
food ingredients?
-
What is the potential impact of efforts that aim to improve the
welfare of neglected farmed animals such as fish, or invertebrates,
especially shrimp and prawns?
-
What is the potential of relatively novel efforts to support the
alternative protein ecosystem, such as increasing government funding
to R&D on plant-based alternatives and passing novel laws that
support plant-based alternatives?
Advocacy
Effectiveness -
Quantifying the effectiveness of existing techniques to shift the food
system towards being more plant-based
Increasing global levels of animal product consumption are associated
with numerous negative outcomes. Advocates are using a wide range of
strategies and approaches, some of which are much better understood than
others. Proposals submitted under this RFP should address the
effectiveness and impact of strategies or approaches to changing the
food system that have not yet been subject to much empirical research.
Note: We will not consider proposals for research that can be described
as all of: focusing on diet change, studying a population in the Global
North, and primarily relying on self-reported data. This is because
self-report diet change research from the Global North is perhaps the
most common type of research relevant to animal protection. However,
proposals that include one or two of these elements will be considered.
Successful proposals will answer one or more of the following questions
as they pertain to understudied advocacy approaches:
Great to see this — I am a past FSRF recipient and it was a very positive experience!