Since 2014, Coefficient has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars toward scientific research. We’ve funded groundbreaking work on computational protein design, novel methods for malaria eradication, technical AI safety innovation, and cutting-edge strategies for pandemic prevention.
We now see an opportunity to accelerate progress on another pressing challenge: improving the welfare of fish during slaughter. Over 100 billion farmed fish are slaughtered each year. Only ~0.5% of those, the salmon, are currently reliably stunned before slaughter using either percussive or electrical methods. For the more than a trillion wild-caught fish, slaughter is even worse: none have the middling option of ice-slurry slaughter, instead left to asphyxiate in air or low dissolved oxygen in onboard tanks.
We’re soliciting proposals for technologies and prototypes that materially improve the welfare of fish at capture and slaughter: rendering pre-death insensibility instantaneous, long-lasting (ideally permanent), verifiable, and scalable under the physical constraints of aquaculture and fisheries operations. We’re placing particular emphasis on solutions that are practical on fishing vessels with limited power and space available, work for small wild fish caught in large quantities, or are alternatives to or improvements upon existing electrical stunning technologies for farmed fish. We are also open to solutions in the immediate pre-slaughter pipeline that do not involve stunning, provided they could plausibly improve the welfare of hundreds of millions of fish.
We expect to spend roughly $7 million USD on this RFP over the next year, and could spend substantially more depending on application quality. We welcome proposals of varying sizes and scopes — from exploratory research to advanced prototype development (i.e. up to ~TRL 7-8). We encourage applications from across the R&D ecosystems, including: individuals; universities and research institutions; small, medium, and large companies; and public sector research organizations. Successful teams will likely be somewhat interdisciplinary, combining expertise in biology, electrical/mechanical engineering, aquaculture, and/or animal welfare science. Whether this is your area of expertise or a new problem you’re interested in tackling, we encourage you to apply!
Applications will remain open until July 1, 2026. The first step is to submit a 2,500-3,000 word Letter of Intent (LOI) at the link below.
Click here to apply
- The LOI should cover an overview of your approach to the problem, research/project plans, organizational structure, timeline, and budget. This rubric outlines the factors we’ll consider when reviewing proposals, and to help you get started, we’ve compiled some technical context and resources that more clearly outline the scope of the problem.
- Applicants whose submissions meet a minimum standard (or rank among the top 125, whichever comes first) will receive a $4,000 honorarium. (Honorarium payments are subject to eligibility under applicable law and completion of any required due diligence/compliance screening)
From this group, we’ll invite 5–30 candidates to submit full proposals by September 30, 2026.