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 optimized 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.

The overall concept of MY-GATEWAY builds around the growth potential boost of CEE start-ups on a pan-European level by exploiting the Consortium partners' Startup Europe experience (as former coordinators and partners of the ICT-13 projects) and by implementing actions aimed at creating new opportunities and synergies within and beyond the MY-GATEWAY’s ecosystem. As a result of the project the CEE start-ups and the startup support organizations representing them will have better access to networks, finance and talent and will acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to maximise their growth potential. Moreover, the project will actively contribute to the expansion of the Startup Europe Community by opening the GATE of the Startup Europe to the Balkans. MY-GATEWAY involved the leading startup support organizations from Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (as members of its Balkan Committee) who will continuously follow up the project activities, facilitate the knowledge transfer - MY-GATEWAY KEY - to the Balkan region and mobilize the Balkan start-ups to set up the "Startup Europe comes to the Balkans" Network.