ORIGIN — Optimized Routing and Industrial Generation of Ingredients from Nature
— powered by AI and precision fermentation.
ORIGIN is developing an integrated, AI-enabled platform to accelerate the journey from high-value natural molecules to fermentation-based ingredients. By connecting digital bioprospecting, pathway and enzyme design, multi-host strain engineering, pilot-scale fermentation, and safety and sustainability assessment, ORIGIN aims to make ingredient development faster, more reliable and less dependent on the harvesting of vulnerable botanical resources.
Four years, starting in June 2026
Academic, research, SME and industrial expertise across the full value chain
Portugal, Denmark, Spain, United Kingdom, Switzerland and the Netherlands
Horizon Europe funding under Grant Agreement No. 101289831
Initial portfolio derived from more than 90 terrestrial botanical sources
Molecules advanced to build-ready biosynthetic pathway blueprints
Best-performing molecule/host combinations selected for process optimisation
Lead processes targeted for demonstration at 30–100 L scale
The bioprospecting team has started building the initial portfolio of more than 120 candidate molecules from terrestrial botanical sources.
Partners from academia, research and industry met to align the first work packages, from digital bioprospecting to pilot-scale fermentation.
Seven partners from six countries have launched ORIGIN, a four-year Horizon Europe Innovation Action connecting AI-enabled discovery, precision fermentation and responsible innovation.
An open session to collect memories of traditional remedies and aromatic plants, and to shape how ORIGIN engages with the public.
ORIGIN researchers introduce the digital tools that connect bioprospecting data to enzyme and pathway design.
