Universities of Adelaide and WA share $90 million space food, medicine funding

The Australian Government is providing $35 million for the new Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space (P4S), led by the University of Adelaide. Additional funding and in-kind support from 38 partner organisations, including four other Australian universities, will bring the total value to $90 million. The Australian government funding for the new Centre will be for seven years initially.

The Centre will help to establish a long-term human presence in space, while also developing innovations on Earth.

“The mission of P4S is to re-imagine plant design and bioresource production, through the lens of space, to enable off-Earth habitation and provide transformative solutions to improve on-Earth sustainability,” said the University of Adelaide’s Professor Matthew Gilliham, Director of the new Centre of Excellence.

“P4S research will create the flexible, plant-based solutions needed to support human physical and psychological well-being during deep space travel and settlement. Work undertaken by experts from the Centre will also deliver a step change in plant efficiency, productivity, and processing technologies here on Earth.”

P4S is a major global collaborative transdisciplinary venture partnering 15 academic institutions, five space agencies and enablers, five Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) companies, six education providers, and seven government and technology partners that collectively harness a global fit-for-purpose critical mass not found elsewhere. Foundational Australian University partners are the University of Adelaide, University of Melbourne, University of Western Australia, Flinders University and La Trobe University.

“By training more than 400 researchers, P4S will produce the next generation of internationally connected and industry-focused experts, and accelerate the growth of the burgeoning national and international CEA and biomanufacturing industries,” added P4S Deputy Director and Processes program lead, Professor Melissa de Zwart from Flinders University.

“Long-term off-Earth habitation is on the horizon. However, key challenges remain, which will be addressed head-on by P4S. Mission success depends on having nutritious food and medicines without the need for resupply missions from Earth,” said P4S Plants program lead, Professor Harvey Millar from the University of Western Australia.

P4S will also drive transformational benefits for on-Earth industries and sustainability outcomes. P4S breakthroughs will offer new plant efficiency solutions for challenging Earth environments and work on how to intensively, but sustainably, produce plant-based foods that can reduce agriculture’s carbon footprint.

P4S will be an Australian contribution to NASA’s Artemis accords, which have been signed by 21 countries including Australia. The Artemis mission plans to put the first woman and person of colour on the Moon by 2030 and to develop the technologies required for humans to venture to Mars and return to Earth in the 2040s. The first phase of the mission is expected to launch and return to Earth by the end of 2022.

Head of the Australian Space Agency, Mr Enrico Palermo, said: “As humankind looks to return to the Moon, this time we do it with the view to establishing a sustainable presence that will allow us to explore further than ever before.

“There are many challenges associated with ensuring humans can live sustainably on the Moon. P4S is just one way in which Australia can contribute to making this happen as part of our commitment to the Artemis Accords.”

The University of Western Australia (UWA) node of the program is led by three WA Scientist of the Year Award winners including Professor Harvey Millar, Professor Ryan Lister and Professor Ian Small, all from UWA’s School of Molecular Sciences. Professor Lister is also from the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research.

“Long-term off-Earth habitation is on the horizon but the success of these missions depends on having medicine and nutritious food without the need for resupply missions from Earth,” Professor Lister said.“Requiring light, water, carbon dioxide, and minimal nutrients, plants are the ultimate solar-powered biofactories for supporting human nutrition and health, as well as production of useful materials.”

“We’ll develop plant varieties and production systems for pick-and-eat plants like water spinach, tomatoes and strawberries,” Professor Millar said. “We’ll also develop food plants for long-term space nutrition using duckweeds that are one of the fastest growing plants.”

Professor Small said the space work had spin-off benefits for agriculture on Earth and would help reduce the sector’s carbon footprint. “Many of the challenges needed for long-term life on Moon and Mars are also faced by agriculture on Earth and need to be researched to advance the efficiency of plant-based foods for example increasing fertiliser use efficiency,” Professor Small said.

The, said the research would lead to significant benefits to life on Earth.

“A large portion of the food required for nutrition, oxygen and wellbeing will need to be produced en route so it’s essential we solve this problem for the continued exploration of our solar system and there will be major benefits also for life on Earth,” the Head of UWA’s International Space Centre, Associate Professor Danail Obreschkow, said.