The 2FP Core Values

Bridging the gaps

Targeting problems, places, and approaches that industry and academia miss 

  • 2FP operates in the space between academia and industry, filling a crucial gap that both often miss. Academic research is strong in basic science but typically lacks a focus on application, while industry excels at scaling solutions but can't afford the long timelines required for early-stage development.


    At 2FP, we bridge this gap by focusing on research with a clear application, such as carbon capture, but not yet ready for commercialization. Our work de-risks nascent microbial technologies, developing them to a point where they can be picked up by industry or other organizations for scaling. This allows us to focus on solving pressing problems without being constrained by profit motives or academic theory.

  • Nascent technologies fail usually because they incur too large a cost to be useful. For example, a barrel of microbial biodiesel is more expensive to produce than a barrel of oil. Alternatively, certain technologies are restricted to only well-funded, premier labs because they just aren’t affordable to everyone else. 


    At 2FP, we believe reducing these costs – fiscal, time, and otherwise – is at the heart of innovation. It’s why we are dedicated to open-sourcing our low-cost methods for sample collection, reducing the efforts required for DNA sequencing, training citizen scientists to do work normally reserved for academic labs, and, overall, figuring out how to make microbial biotechnology scalable and practical.

Radically open research

Rapid, sovereignty-aware, open-access data sharing

  • We are dedicated to openly sharing all environmental microbiome data we collect with the research community according to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data use principles. We believe that, in general, holding naturally occurring biological data behind walls for the sake of commercialization or a competitive advantage directly impedes scientific progress. Generating intellectual property and starting companies is great: but data alone does not equal value, it’s what you do with it that matters. Keeping data – especially naturally occurring biological data – behind closed doors unnecessarily means that everyone has to build the same dataset independently to answer similar questions: this is wildly inefficient.

    That’s why we’re committed to making the raw environmental sequencing we collect publicly available at zero cost to other researchers.

  • A tangible respect for local and indigenous data sovereignty is built into our work. We sample around the world, often in areas with local populations that have lived there for generations. Wherever we work, we ensure we have local collaborators and contacts in the community who understand exactly what and why we’re doing what we’re doing. Our culturing work is Nagoya compliant, we stand by FAIR data use principles, and prior to collection, we specify for every sample exactly what it could be used for, from basic research to, with the consent of the appropriate parties, intellectual property generation. We are dedicated to honoring and respecting the traditions of the local peoples who inhabit where we sample, and we are continually making efforts to build scientific bridges all over the world.

Empowering new scientists

Enabling anyone and everyone to do research

  • Science is not just for the ivory tower or people with straight As in their STEM courses; in fact, we need as many diverse people as possible to get involved in order to achieve the broader goals of 2FP. At 2FP, we design and run educational and citizen science initiatives around the globe for individuals of all backgrounds. Every sampling kit we build is also set up to be functional as an educational tool, sufficient for an entire course in microbiology, bioinformatics, and next-generation DNA sequencing. We can teach everything from day-long workshops to multiple-week intensive courses, where anyone from high school students to adults with no scientific training can learn about our methods and actively contribute to science. We additionally have launched citizen science programs, where anyone can use our kits and methods to sample their home and surroundings. If you are interested in getting involved, please do not hesitate to reach out.