Partnerships with purpose

As a founding partner of the World Food System Centre at ETH Zurich, Bühler and Migros funded the assistant Professorship in Sustainable Food Processing. In 2022, Alex Mathys received his full professorship for this role. 

Since 2019, Bühler, Givaudan, and Nestlé have supported ETH Zurich with CHF 5 million to advance research and teaching in food technology and nutrition. The Future Food Initiative supported a postdoctoral program for outstanding young researchers focusing on future food challenges. The program is co-managed by the World Food System Center and the Integrative Food Science and Nutrition Center at EPFL. In 2024, three new projects were funded and started. The program has so far supported twelve fellows working on diverse topics. The funding also includes a new professorship in the field of food process engineering and nutrition at the Department of Health Sciences and Technology (D- HEST) at ETH Zurich. This position has been filled with Patrick Rühs as Assistant Professor in Food Structure Engineering. The funding will be used to enable scientific work at the doctoral or postdoctoral level and to fund research projects in the newly created research group.

Bühler is a founding industry partner with ETH Zurich in Switzerland and Ashesi University in Ghana offering a master’s program in mechatronics engineering since 2020. The program aims to promote the next generation of leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa who will take responsibility for sustainable development in the region. Swiss companies such as ABB, Barry Callebaut, Lafarge Holcim, and Nestlé are also partners in this project, supporting through funding and scholarships. All partners offer internships at their African branches, equipping the students with the skills needed in the labor market. The respective students are absorbed in the partnering companies to strengthen their African skill-base. 

The three-year program equips students with specialist competencies and a wide range of skills to pursue careers in production and automation. Each year, 25 to 30 students join the master’s program from all over Sub-Saharan Africa. Candidates are selected based on their knowledge, skills, motivation, and leadership potential. 

In 2025, the first cohort of students finished the course, three of whom were sponsored by Bühler. 

Bühler has been present at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) campus since 2015. Bühler Innovation Office, located at the EPFL Innovation Park, was established to drive collaboration with EPFL centers – such as the Swiss Data Science Center, the Integrative Food & Nutrition Center, and the Center of MicroNanoTechnology – as well as with research labs, start-ups, and spin-offs. These partnerships, including joint student internships and master’s projects, have also been key to ensuring access to future talents for Bühler across all engineering disciplines taught at EPFL.

In 2025, eight EPFL students completed their Industrial Master internship at Bühler Innovation office. They worked on innovation projects in the fields of AI, mechanical engineering, and high vacuum thin film deposition. In parallel, Bühler maintained its collaborations with laboratories in the fields of granular materials, energy efficiency, and bioprocessing, while developing new partnerships in material science. 

Bühler data scientists have been embedded on the campus since 2018 to collaborate closely with the Swiss Data Science Center. In 2025, the team continued developing new digital services aimed at optimizing the efficiency of the processing plants and equipment of Bühler’s customers, while leveraging Large Language Models for customer support.

Founded in 2000, UNITECH seeks to strengthen ties between academia and industry by preparing talented young engineers to address future challenges in the global marketplace. Bühler has been a committed partner since 2014, employing more than 37 UNITECH graduates. Jay O’Nien, Bühler’s Group Sustainability Officer, serves as president of the UNITECH Alumni Association.

The UNITECH Diploma is awarded to students who complete an academic exchange at a partner university, engage in a collaborative case study, and complete an internship with a corporate partner. Additionally, they participate in coaching modules, guided by dedicated coaches such as Marco Frick from Bühler Switzerland. Each year, Bühler hosts UNITECH interns to contribute to projects in Switzerland and Germany related to the Environmental Quantification Program, R&D, automation and digitalization, data science, and product development.

One Young World (OYW) was the catalyst for the Generation B movement in 2016 and continues to be a source of inspiration and a valuable partner. One Young World is a non-profit organization that convenes young leaders from around the world to develop solutions to the world’s most pressing issues. Bühler sends delegates to the summit every year to inspire members of the organization to drive change. One of these change vehicles is Generation B.

In 2019, Bühler and Generation B hosted their first OYW Caucus, a local version of the OYW Summit, with founder Kate Robertson attending in person in the CUBIC. In 2021, Bühler and Generation B held their second OYW Caucus, this time in partnership with Arosa Tourismus, where 300 young leaders from companies and universities across Europe came together to contribute to the OYW Switzerland Caucus in Uzwil and Arosa and online, on June 19 and 20. The Caucus tackled three questions; how we can create start-ups with sustainability at their core, how we can evolve corporations to be sustainable, and how we can make entire industries more sustainable, using tourism as an example. 

In 2022, Bühler hosted the first official OYW Switzerland Caucus, following Switzerland founding One Young World’s first National Board. This event brought together 100 young leaders, with 15 different organizations in Switzerland officially partnering to support the event and truly enabling the vision of the Swiss National Board to identify, connect and promote Switzerland’s most impactful young leaders. Since then, One Young World Switzerland has continued to grow and support the work of impactful young leaders. The National Board has reached over 850 young leaders across Switzerland, and the 2025 National Congress was supported by over 25 official partners.

The Bezos Centres for Sustainable Protein are a global initiative to accelerate the industrialization of next-generation sustainable proteins, supported by a USD 100 million commitment from the Bezos Earth Fund over a five-year period. The initiative’s core mission is to ensure that people across the world can be fed nutritiously with minimal impact on biodiversity, the climate, and the wider natural environment. To achieve this, three research centres have been established across the world: in Europe at Imperial College London, UK, in America at the North Carolina State University, US, and in Asia at the National University of Singapore. Bühler has become a main Industrial Partner at the hubs at Imperial College London and North Carolina State University.   

The collaboration between the Imperial College Centre and Bühler took off during 2025. The partnership facilitates the collaboration between academia and industry that is necessary to advance and scale enabling technology between the three core pillars of alternative protein: plant-based foods, precision fermentation, and cellular agriculture. It accelerates the transition from fundamental lab-based science on bioprocessing to proven global industrial operations, which is essential for de-risking the industrial scale-up of sustainable protein. Bühler’s engagement at the Imperial College Centre includes actively supporting specific research projects with our industrial expertise, contributing current industry challenges to the prioritization of the Centre’s future research, and providing key support during scientific conferences.   

This strategic partnership with Imperial College was recently recognized by the BBSRC, the UK Biotechnology Research Council, which granted the highly competitive Industrial Doctoral Landscape Award (IDLA) to the industrial-academic consortium, led by Imperial College, Bühler, and BASF. Through a seven-year funded portfolio of industry-focused doctoral training, the ecosystem partnership is committed to overcoming critical food bioprocessing challenges and advancing the development of innovative bioprocessing technologies for sustainable protein production.

Jiangnan University and Bühler established the Innovative Protein Industry Alliance (IPIA) and held the Future Food Summit in May 2021 with industry partners such as Givaudan, Glanbia, Dongsheng Biotech, and Jinnong Biologicals. In October 2022, the IPIA launched the Innovative Protein Challenge to accelerate scale-up for Chinese start-ups; Megameat, Xland, and CellX were announced as winners in July 2023. The second IPIA Summit – “Alternative Protein Technology Innovation & Industry Development Forum” – took place in January 2024, followed by the “IPIA Day” forum at the Food & Beverage Innovation Forum in Shanghai on 25 June 2024.

Since 2024, Connie He, President of Bühler Greater China, and Professor Zhou Jingwen, Deputy Director of Jiangnan’s Future Food Center, co-chair IPIA and continue to drive open innovation across the Chinese protein ecosystem. Novonesis joined IPIA in the same year. In June 2025, Farmtory – an IPIA-linked biotech firm – pitched at Scale-up Day. Three months later, the IPIA led a customer-survey tour of Shandong to map pain points and co-design solutions, forging a fast lane for the whole alternative-protein chain.

Bühler started its partnership with Big Idea Ventures in 2020 to accelerate the success of promising start-ups creating sustainable food alternatives. Big Idea Ventures is a global hybrid venture capital firm focused on solving the world’s biggest challenges by supporting the world’s best entrepreneurs in the fields of alternative proteins. Through their “New Protein Fund I”, the company has invested in and accelerated 105 alternative protein companies globally. These companies are aligned with Bühler’s focus areas and provide the Group with new technologies and access to future customers. Their new fund, the “Global Food Innovation Fund II” extends its investment thesis to fats, ingredients, sweeteners, flavorings, and monocrops. In 2025, together with Mars Petcare, Givaudan and AAK, we launched the second round of the Big Idea Ventures Next Generation Pet Food Program, driving innovation in pet food and engaging with the start-up ecosystem to develop more sustainable solutions. The program is global, with a strong focus on start-ups based in the Asia Pacific. Big Idea Ventures runs accelerator programs in New York, Singapore, and Paris.  

Icos is a venture capital firm working at the intersection of digital and sustainable industry. By bringing corporations and start-ups together and facilitating strong partnerships with investors, Icos aims to build an ecosystem that helps to accelerate and scale up sustainable solutions. Bühler has worked closely with ICOS since 2014 developing an impactful and promising investment portfolio.  

Bühler has been a partner of this cross-industry start-up accelerator since 2014 and joined MassChallenge Switzerland as a founding partner in 2016. Since 2016, MassChallenge Switzerland has been a leader in helping start-ups across Europe grow their businesses. It has accelerated 1,175 start-ups across multiple industries that have raised USD 2.9 billion in funding and generated 86,400 direct and indirect jobs. In 2025, 138 start-ups from 38 countries were accelerated in the early-stage accelerator, nearly half of which were in the sustainable food industry, and there were 570 applications for the later-stage Sustainable Food Solutions Challenge.

The Scale It Up! innovation challenge helps start-ups to accelerate and scale their project, product, or solution from a first version to a scalable product ready to be launched. Bühler, Cargill, Givaudan, and Puris, all leaders within the food system value chain, support the start-ups on their journey with their expertise and access to their network and first-class facilities. The first Scale It Up! challenge was held in 2021, and subsequent programs have run in Europe, Singapore, and China.

A new strategic partnership with German engineering company endeco was formed in June 2022 to drive forward protein extraction from side streams, meet growing demand for alternative sources of protein, and develop protein processing solutions with a significantly lower CO₂e footprint. endeco specializes in the design and construction of starch and protein plants. Bühler and endeco have built a new Protein Application Center at Bühler’s headquarters in Uzwil, Switzerland, to offer customers end-to-end solutions, from field to meat and dairy substitutes, as well as intermediate ingredients, including all wet and dry processing. This research center is recognized as the best-in-class research and training center in the world for this type of processing.

Bühler and Hosokawa Alpine Group from Germany have signed a strategic collaboration agreement to accelerate and strengthen the production of healthier and sustainable plant protein solutions. It will provide customers with the most efficient value chain for pulses that are processed into protein ingredients.

As the leading solution provider in pulses processing, Bühler offers solutions for the intake, cleaning, dehulling, and grinding of pulses, and further food processing with its extrusion technology, which texturizes plant-based proteins into products with fibrous texture similar to meat. Hosokawa Alpine complements the production process by adding its leading technology for the dry separation of protein from pulses – fine grinding and air classification. 

The combination of Bühler’s upstream pulses process and Hosokawa’s process for size reduction and classification produces the highest yields of high value protein concentrates. The partnership will offer customers process technology and expertise along the complete field-to-fork pulses protein chain.

In October 2022, Bühler joined Upcell, an alliance of international players from industry and universities along the value chain of lithium-ion battery manufacturing. The aim of the Alliance is to scale up development of the battery cell manufacturing ecosystem in Europe and North America by providing one networking platform between equipment and machine builders and battery manufacturers.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a global community of over 225 of the world’s leading businesses driving systems transformation for a better world in which 9+ billion people can live well, within planetary boundaries, by mid-century. The member companies come from all business sectors and all major economies.

Bühler and Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) have been collaborating since 2019 to advance bioprocess technologies that accelerate the transition toward efficient and sustainable food and biotechnology production. Within the framework of this partnership, Bühler and ZHAW have co-developed process analytical tools and automation solutions for Bühler’s Stellar technology, a breakthrough in industrial bioprocessing. ZHAW’s Bioprocess Technology Laboratory provides state-of-the-art infrastructure up to pre-pilot scale, which can be linked to Bühler’s research and training centers for downstream trials. This collaboration bridges academic research and industrial application to validate value chain concepts from substrate pre-processing to finished product formulation, driving innovation and creating new opportunities across the bioprocessing industry.

Givaudan and Bühler collaborate on several projects with the aim of finding better, healthier, and more sustainable ways of feeding up to 10 billion people by 2050. In April 2021, the two partners opened the state-of-the-art Protein Innovation Centre. It welcomes food processing companies, start-ups, and university researchers from across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region keen to co-create plant-based food experiences that do good and feel good. The Protein Innovation Centre not only enables the development of more plant-based protein products across Asia, it also ensures that products can be scaled to the production volumes required to create a positive environmental impact on food chains.   

To date the Protein Innovation Centre has partnered with over 50 food companies across the region to develop products tailored for Asian cuisines at scale, such as Singaporean chili crab, Indonesian mutton rendang, Korean beef bulgogi. It has also collaborated with a leading Asian agribusiness to create a cost-effective and authentic plant-based mutton, achieving a cost per kilogram 10% below their target. It has co-developed recipes from scratch with partners, like Indofood and Suji’s Link, which are now successfully commercialized. It hosts workshops and visits for top agrifood players, including Kellogg’s, Oatside and Mars, which have led to multiple ongoing collaborations, such as the Mars Next Generation Pet Food program.  

In 2022, Bühler became a member of MISTA, a multi-dimensional innovation platform based in San Francisco, US, which has been created to transform the global food system to meet the needs of the future.

MISTA members include both corporate members (Nestlé, Danone, CJ Cheiljedang, Ingredion, AAK, Givaudan, and others), as well as a number of start-ups in the food tech space, ranging from Artificial Intelligence use for food product development, to novel fermented proteins/lipids, to heat-stable natural food colors, and much more. MISTA hosts one Buhler Technologist on site to run customer trials on a twin screw extruder, and to scout for collaboration opportunities in the Silicon, Sacramento, and San Joaquin valleys, which combined make up one of the premier Food Tech capitals in the world. In 2025 MISTA chose an overall theme based on its members – “Healthy Nutrition”, to reflect changing consumer shopping habits in the era of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, debates about labelling of HFSS (high fat, salt, and sugar) “Ultra-Processed Foods”, and the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement.

As part of the Healthy Nutrition track, MISTA hosted a symposium deep-diving into each of these topics for its members, hosted a Healthy Snacking Course with multidisciplinary expert speakers, and facilitated a “Growth Hack”, in which its members collaborated to produce prototypes of novel, healthy food products, while also testing AI-powered tools to ensure market fits. The MISTA Growth Hacks led to the announcement of a number of Joint Ventures, where start-ups team up with corporates to accelerate their scale-up journey.

In June 2022, Bühler, Givaudan, and Migros formed a new entity, The Cultured Hub, in Kemptthal near Zurich, to support and accelerate the large-scale development of cultivated food products. The self-sustained enterprise provides other companies with facilities, technology, and expertise to enable the production scale-up of cultured meats, cultured fish, and seafood.

In October 2023, Bühler and partners Cargill, Givaudan, the Institute of Food Technology (Ital), and the FoodTech HUB Latam opened the Tropical Food Innovation Lab in São Paulo, Brazil. It provides an innovation ecosystem for the development of sustainable food and beverages focused on promoting Brazilian biodiversity. Equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure, the innovation center connects research institutes, universities, companies, investors, and start-ups providing them access to cutting-edge technology for rapid prototyping and direct connection to global food and beverage science.