Prof Emanuele Zannini is an Associate Professor in Food Science at the Department of Environmental Biology at the University of Rome “La Sapienza (Italy). Since November 2022, he has also been appointed a Research Professor at University College Cork (Ireland). His research focuses on the functional characterisation of lactic acid bacteria for use as starter and/or protective cultures in food, focusing primarily on plant-based products and beverages. His research also investigates and validates innovative, sustainable food systems to deliver affordable, fair, safe, and nutritious food and beverage products. He successfully coordinates the Horizon Europe SMART PROTEIN project with a consortium of 32 partners. He is the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed papers with a Scopus h-index of 66.