Nucleate Cultivate Opens Applications for 2025 Cultivate Tomorrow Food-Tech Hackathon

Registration for the Cultivate Tomorrow Virtual Hackathon, powered by Nucleate Cultivate, is open until Jan. 10, 2025. Apply Here.

Boston, MA – December 12, 2024 – Nucleate Cultivate is pleased to announce that applications are now open for the 2025 Cultivate Tomorrow Virtual Hackathon. Registration is available until January 10, 2025.

Following the success of three previous editions, the Cultivate Tomorrow Hackathon invites undergraduate and graduate students from around the world to join its fourth cohort. This year’s six-week program will commence on January 31 and conclude on March 14, culminating in Demo Day on March 22.

Participants will engage in a program that includes a cellular agriculture crash course and design thinking modules developed in collaboration with Cell Ag Australia. Additionally, attendees will have opportunities to attend professional seminars, network with industry leaders, and compete for a $2,000 prize awarded to the winning teams.

Competition Tracks

Teams will be formed into interdisciplinary groups and paired with industry mentors to address critical challenges in the cellular agriculture sector through one of two competition tracks:

1. Advertising Track

   • Objective: Develop a brand and a low-fidelity advertising campaign for a sustainable cultivated food product.
   • Requirements: Improve public perception of cultivated or precision fermentation-based products, explain the underlying scientific concepts, and generate excitement about these innovative food options.

2. Underutilized Resource & Novel Technology Track

   • Objective: Identify and evaluate a novel technology or resource that can enhance R&D in animal cell culture or precision fermentation.
   • Requirements: Propose a resource that can reduce costs, improve quality, lower environmental impact, increase process efficiency, or diversify cultivated food products. Develop a research proposal outlining the experimental steps needed to evaluate and validate the chosen resource.

Final Deliverables

Each team will submit a report detailing their advertising campaign or technical summary of their novel technology. These reports will be evaluated by a panel of judges, and selected teams will present their projects at Demo Day on March 22.

“This is a one-of-a-kind program providing incredible value for graduate and undergraduate students interested in food tech,” said Sean Baker, Executive Director of Nucleate Cultivate. “The Cultivate Tomorrow Hackathon is international, institution-agnostic, and free, making it an excellent opportunity for academic trainees from any discipline.”

Support and Partnerships

Past hackathons have been supported by industry leaders including Millipore Sigma Innovation Center, Aleph Farms, Lejjy Gafour, Ginkgo Bioworks, Mirik Gogri, and Food Systems Innovation, among others.

About Cultivate Tomorrow

Cultivate Tomorrow Hackathon is an annual competition where student teams tackle pressing issues in the cellular agriculture industry. Participants collaborate with industry mentors over a three-month period, culminating in Demo Day, which features awards, networking opportunities, and panel discussions. Cultivate Tomorrow is the flagship program of Nucleate Cultivate.

About Nucleate Cultivate

Nucleate Cultivate is an affiliate of Nucleate, a global student-run non-profit organization dedicated to identifying future bio-entrepreneurs, educating and empowering students in science and business, building connections within the biotech sector, and accelerating bio ventures.

For more information, please visit the Cultivate Tomorrow website and follow us on LinkedIn.