The first government funded research on cultured meat took place in the Netherlands.
The Dutch government agency SenterNovem funded cultured meat research from 2005 to 2009, in part because of conversations between New Harvest founder Jason Matheny and the Dutch Minister of Agriculture in October of 2004.
The research program was initiated by Willem Van Eelen, an 86-year-old entrepreneur who had been fascinated by cultured meat for decades and had filed a patent on the idea in 1997. Dr. Henk Haagsman, of Utrecht University, was the principal grant writer for the Dutch cultured meat project. The project was subdivided into 3 different areas: a) stem cell biology, conducted at Utrecht University by Dr. Henk Haagsman and Dr. Bernard Roelen; b) tissue engineering, conducted at Eindhoven Technical University by Dr. Carlijn Bouten; and c) culture media, conducted at the University of Amsterdam by Dr. Klaas Hellingwerf. Included in the grant application were Meester Stegeman BV (at that time part of Sara Lee foods, Peter Verstrate) and Vitro Meat BV (Willem van Eelen). During this time, New Harvest contributed $7000 to Henk Haagsman’s lab.