About ProVEG
ProVeg International is a food awareness organisation working to transform the global food system by replacing 50% of animal products globally with plant-based and cultivated foods by 2040.
ProVeg engages with all relevant stakeholders to create a food system where everyone chooses delicious and healthy food that is good for all humans, animals and our planet.
About ProVEG
ProVeg has received the United Nations’ Momentum for Change Award and works closely with key UN food and environment agencies. We have observer status with the UNFCCC and the IPCC, special consultative status with ECOSOC, and are accredited for UNEA.
ProVeg creates global impact, with offices in 11 countries across four continents and more than 200 employees.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Observer status
United Nations Environment Programme
Accredited Organisation
About the challenge
Our food choices have a significant impact on our health, society, and the environment. A plant-based diet is a multiproblem solution to several key global problems, including climate change, food security, animal welfare, and health and pandemics.
The Food Innovation Challenge will give students the chance to gain valuable insights into an exciting and fast-growing industry, while channelling their creativity and skills towards solving some of the biggest challenges facing the world today. We invite university students from all academic disciplines to take part in the challenge.
Students from all over the APAC region are invited to participate in this year’s edition of the Challenge. Students enrolled in universities from other continents are also welcome to participate by forming teams with students enrolled in APAC universities.
Please click here to download the Idea Submission Template and register your details for updates about the ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge (FIC).
Innovation topics – 2023 APAC Challenge
Beyond Meat: plant-based meat
Since its launch in Asia in 2020, Beyond Meat has introduced a product portfolio that includes plant-based minced beef, minced pork, beef patties, and breakfast sausage patties. Beyond Meat invites you to develop a concept for their next new product, along with a launch plan and details about the product’s key competitive advantages.
Cargill: plant-based seafood
Design a plant-based fish/seafood innovation and develop an omnichannel business plan for a market in the APAC region. You’ll need to take in account local consumer needs, regulatory requirements, and competitive differentiation, and provide a feasible plan for taking the product to market.
CPF: plant-based ready meal
Develop a range of healthy and nutritious plant-based ready meals to be sold in convenience stores. You’ll need to identify target consumers as well as key points of differentiation, and price levels. Please also provide details of a launch plan.
Green Rebel: plant-based steak
Use Green Rebel’s steak product to develop a series of applications. You’ll need to identify food-service customers and develop a marketing strategy to promote the products and penetrate the markets in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines) and South Korea.
Haofoods: plant-based chicken
Haofood’s latest product, Carefree Pulled Chickless, is a clean-label* plant-based-chicken product made from peanuts. Please provide recommendations of applications for the product, along with detailed price points and a launch plan for your application.
*Clean-label products are made without any artificial additives, preservatives, thickeners, water-retention agent, colourings, flavourings, or MSG.
Nestle: plant-based solution
Develop a plant-based food and/or beverage solution for the Asia market that is targeted at health-conscious young adults. You will need to take taste, nutrition, cost, and scalability into account, as well as provide evidence of any health or sustainability claims.
Shuangta: plant-based egg
Shuangta is one of the world’s largest plant-protein manufacturers. We invite you to develop a plant-based-egg solution using mung beans. The proposal should include details of product format (e.g. liquid, solid, powder), packaging, shelf life, pricing, and target applications.
Thai Union: plant-based cuisine
Propose culinary applications targeted at younger Asian consumers using Thai Union’s plant-based seafood products – tuna, shrimp, crab – as ingredients.
Unilever: The Vegetarian Butcher product
Develop a new product for Unilever’s The Vegetarian Butcher brand. Identify target, pricing, and usage occasions, as well as providing a detailed launch plan.
Unlimeat: plant-based home meal
Develop concepts for plant-based ready meals for a market in the APAC region. This could be a stand-alone item or part of a a product range. You’ll need to Identify target consumers and provice a packaging design along with a comprehensive launch plan.
Zuming: soya-based food/drink
Zuming is the first publicly listed soya-based food company in China. Design a soya-based food or drink that is tasty, nutritious, and environmentally friendly, and which is targeted at Gen-Z consumers. You’ll need to Identify target consumers, pricing, and usage occasions.
Selection Criteria
Market Potential: 30%
projected revenue, profitability, and growth opportunities, taking challenges and available alternatives into consideration.
Feasibility 30%
feasibility of product (or campaign) ideas, including formulation, manufacturing, supply chain, and distribution.
Product uniqueness: 20%
clear explanations on how your project is innovative and different from what is currently available in the sector.
Go-to-market strategy: 20%
clear explanations on how you would introduce your products to the market.
Timeline
20 Oct 2023
Early-bird Submission
20 Nov 2023
Proposal Submission Deadline
Dec 2023 / Jan 2024
Final Presentations
Early Bird Submission
Submit your proposals before 20 October (00:00 UTC+8) to win tickets to attend the ProVeg Incubator Demo Day in December to watch trailblazing food-tech startups pitch to a panel of prominent investors.
Please click here to download the Idea Submission Template and register your details for updates about the ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge (FIC).
Apply now
WHO CAN TAKE PART?
Students currently enrolled in undergraduate or graduate programmes at universities and colleges in the Asia-Pacific region.
Teams must have a minimum of two and a maximum of four people.
Teams can include students from different disciplines and different schools.
You have great food-innovation ideas (no prototype necessary).
Why take the challenge?
Personal Development
- Gain food-innovation experience and recognition through participation in real-world challenges while honing essential innovation skills
- Receive expert mentoring from key industry professionals, as well as potential career opportunities (internships/full-time positions)
- Network with representatives from leading organisations and peers from Asia-Pacific countries.
Credentials
- Certificate of participation
- Chance to present your ideas at the UN Climate Conference (COP28) in Dubai in December
Cash Prize
- Get the chance to win a share of cash awards totaling 10,000 USD.
Please click here to download the Idea Submission Template and register your details for updates about the ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge (FIC).
Awards
2nd
place
1,500 USD
2x
1st
place
3,000 USD
3rd
place
1,000 USD
3x
Finalists 200 USD
- ● Finalist teams will have a chance to be coached by experts from participating companies.
- ● Selected teams will also have the chance to present their ideas online at the UN Climate Change Conference – COP28 – Food4Climate Pavilion hosted by ProVeg International.
- ● Participants will be awarded with a ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge certificate.
Please click here to submit your proposal for the 2023 ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge (FIC)!
Final submission date is 20 November (00:00 GMT+8)
Thank you so much to ProVeg for providing this platform and giving us the opportunity to show ourselves to our heart’s content. There were difficulties and losses in the process of the competition, but we never thought of giving up, because quitters never win and winners never quit.
The ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge is a great opportunity for young people to make a difference in the world. We got to work with Haofoods first hand, and it was an amazing experience. We got to work with some of the brightest minds in the plant-based food industry, and learned a lot about how to bring our ideas to market. If you’re passionate about plant-based food, I highly recommend entering the challenge.
EVENTS AND PROMOTION
Student Ambassador: Invite your peers to join!
Enlist one team (excluding your own team) to join the challenge and make an early-bird submission of their proposal (Early-bird submission deadline 20 Oct 2023), you will receive a certificate of Leadership and Social Responsibility issued by ProVeg as well as a free ticket to the New Food Conference (priced at 149 euro).
The New Food Conference is the first and largest alternative protein conference in Europe. Participants include representatives from governments, universities, and leading companies. The online tickets are priced at 149 euro. Find out more about NFC at www.new-food-conference.com.
Please remind the teams you have enlisted to include your name as their Student Ambassador when signing up! We will issue awards to Student Ambassadors based on registration information.
Find Your Teammate
Do you need help finding a teammate? Scan the QR code to apply and we will do our best to set you up with your dream team.
English-language Support
The Challenge requires all proposals to be submitted in English.
If you need English-language support for your proposal, scan the QR code in advance to apply for volunteer support for half an hour, one week before early submission on 20 October and one week before final submission on 20 November. (Subject to availability)
Most Creative Promotion Awards
We encourage students to develop creative posts on TikTok, Instagram, and Redbook in order to invite other students to participate in the challenge. Use the hashtag #ProVegFoodInnovationChallenge and make sure you make your posts before 11 November.
The three students with the most creative posts will each receive a 150-USD gift certificate! There will be one gift certificate each for Instagram, Tik Tok, and Redbook.
Events
Join us during our in-person events and our interactive webinars!
Scientists and marketing professionals from participating companies, as well as professors from partnered universities, they will share their vision, strategies, and expectations of the Innovation Proposals. Stay tuned for updates!
Scan the QR codes below to register for our in-person events in Thailand and Singapore!
Past Events
Previous Innovation Challenges
2022 Food Innovation Challenge APAC
In 2022, the ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge attracted student participants from 164 different universities across the Asia and Pacific region. Participating students could choose between seven different innovation topics, presented by seven major actors from the plant-based industry.
7 leading companies involved
160+ universities
179 proposals received
558 participants
The Challenge won the ‘Best use of digital by a charity, NGO or NFP’ Award at the Digital Impact Awards
“I’m quite impressed by college attendants’ creativity and efforts put into the project.”
peter zhang
Unilever
“This is a great opportunity to connect with young talents and learn about their requirements, creativity and perspectives in plant-based innovation. They are our future consumers and their engagement and participation are crucial as innovators and responsible consumers.”
lalana thiranusornkij
CPF
2021 Food Innovation Challenge SEA
In 2021, the ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge attracted student participants from 54 different universities across the South-East Asia region. Participating students could choose between eight different innovation topics, presented by seven major actors from the plant-based industry as well as ProVeg itself.
7 leading companies involved
50+ universities
125 proposals received
410 participants
The Challenge won the ‘Best use of digital by a charity, NGO or NFP’ Award at the Digital Impact Awards
“It has been a pleasure to witness the variety and diversity of student group ideas related to the future of plant-based meat. The creativity and thoughtfulness of the submissions we have received has inspired our whole team.”
WILL SCHAFER
Beyond Meat
“The Proveg Innovation campaign gives us an opportunity to learn more about the SEA market. As one of our target groups is Generation Z, the participants of this campaign – university students – can inspire us a lot and raise valuable ideas.”
FRED ZHU
R&D Head of Asia at Oatly
2020 Food Innovation Challenge China
In June 2020, the Plant-Based Food Innovation Contest in China attracted 260 students from more than 20 universities across China, along with 10 food-and-beverage companies that took part in the contest. Students competed in three different categories: pre-packaged foods, main-course recipes, and animal-free ingredients. Finalists were coached and mentored by industry experts.
10 companies involved
20+ schools participated
78 proposals received
“Thank you for your kind note and happy to see one of the ice-cream challenge participants reaching second place. It was a good experience for us and we look forward to leveraging the learnings in our activities. I would like to thank the whole ProVeg organisation for their professionalism and we look forward to future collaboration.”
GUGLIELMO BONORA
Nestle
“I must say these young talents were working effortlessly with passion and dedication to achieve their goals and hoping that their product ideas would end up in retail stores or food-service channels. I hope the audience or potential investors can help make their dream a reality!“
Lalana Thiranusornkij
Vice President of R&D, Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited