MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation and the Coca-Cola Company announced the next request for proposals (RFP) with an application deadline of May 29th, 2024. The Grand Challenge for Alternatives to Sugar program expects to fund at least two additional projects with this new RFP. For more details, click here. Instructions for MIT DLCs on submitting proposals found here.
Grand Challenge proposals are expected to fall into four areas, but additional innovative areas will be considered:
- Advancing the science of taste and aroma and filling in key knowledge gaps in the biology and neuroscience of sweet taste perception and sweet taste quality, such as identifying the physiological mechanisms that distinguish sugar from other sweeteners.
- Tools and assay technologies to screen sweetness beyond current technologies (especially HTP methods for assessing the quality of sweetness rather than just sweet intensity)
- Advanced chemical approaches for studying, creating, or delivering superior sweet taste quality (e.g., novel research methods, molecular tools for probing the biological mechanisms, combinatorial chemistry (peptides, glycans, etc.), or delivery systems).
- Machine learning and AI for the analysis of complex data sets related to taste perception and for revealing hidden correlations around taste interactions.
We encourage eligible research collaborations to apply.
