Call out for collaborative research proposals: Digitally Enhanced Australian Red Meat Integrity System

Call out for collaborative research proposals

Digitally Enhanced Australian Red Meat Integrity System

Food Agility CRC and Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) Group are excited to launch a $4.5m initiative to deliver scalable digital tools for the red meat industry. In the first round, we will invest $2.6m in projects that tackle three major challenges in the Australian red meat supply chain. We welcome project proposals by Tuesday 24 November 2020. 

 Who is this for?

Australian agtech companies that have demonstrated access to supply chain participants in the Australian red meat production sector, in partnership with Australian research organisations. Food Agility CRC and MLA will invest up to two-thirds of eligible project costs, with the agtech and research partners investing the rest. Technology companies may also be eligible for the R&D tax incentive, significantly reducing the cost of your R&D investment.

Register for a webinar to learn more

Come along to a webinar to hear more about the program, understand what we are looking for in project proposals and ask the program leaders your questions.‍

Webinar details: Monday 2 November, 12 - 1pm AEDT. Register to attend.

 About the program

The Digitally Enhanced Australian Red Meat Integrity System Program is a $4.5million initiative that aims to deliver new digital tools and services for the red meat industry, in line with the Integrity Systems 2025 & Beyond Strategic Plan (IS2025). The focus is on data-driven supply chains and improving trust and transparency. Food Agility and MLA will invest $2.6million in a first round of projects and are calling for collaborative research proposals that respond to three major challenges facing the Australian red meat industry:‍

• Challenge 1: Real time animal identification and tracking. Download the challenge description.
• Challenge 2: Residues in livestock production – on-farm risk mitigation and automatic detection. Download the challenge description.
• Challenge 3: Using Genotyping for individual animal identification and to support provenance claims. Download the challenge description.

These challenges were refined after a series of discovery workshops with a number of key industry stakeholders. This program of research will be:

• ‍Collaborative, bringing together technology, research and industry partners
• Impactful, with viable commercial pathways to get new tools and services into the hands of businesses in the red meat supply chain
• ‍Agile, applying Food Agility’s Research Agility model for collaborative research

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How to apply

1. Read the EOI framework. Please pay close attention to the eligibility criteria, eligible project activities and the assessment criteria.
2. Choose your challenge. (see above for challenge descriptions).
3. Build your team. Project proposals must be created and submitted by a collaborative team with at least one Australian agtech company and at least one Australian research organisation, with involvement from a red meat supply chain participant (end-user).
4. Co-design your project. Feel free to use our suite of Research Agility tools.
5. Complete the project plan and the project budget spreadsheet in full and email them both to hello@foodagility.com by COB on Tuesday 24 November 2020.

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What we are looking for in project proposals

Please carefully review the eligibility criteria, eligible project activities and the assessment criteria. In a nutshell, we are looking for:

• Genuine collaboration between technology, research and industry
• Technology and research partners willing to invest cash (at least one third in total)
• Involvement of an end-user /participant in the red meat supply chain that has an established relationship with either the technology or the research partner
• Sustainable, scalable business models for the new digital tools and services, with resulting IP owned by or licenced to the technology partner for commercialisation
• At least 75% of the budget spent on core research activities with the research partner
• Novel research delivered using agile principles, showing how value will be delivered to the end user throughout the project, not just at the end
• Value for money
• Projects no longer than two years

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We are here to help!

We want your proposal to be great. Get in touch with the people below if you have any questions.

For technical questions in relation to the challenges, please contact:  

• Integrity Systems Company Project Manager, Julie Petty, jpetty@integritysystems.com.au 
• Food Agility Innovation Manager, Dr Cameron Ralph, cameron.ralph@foodagility.com
• Food Agility Chief Scientist, Professor David Lamb, dave.lamb@foodagility.com 

For questions relating to agile project design, please contact:  

• Food Agility Agile Coach, John Westgarth, john.westgarth@foodagility.com 

For questions relating to project administration or connecting relevant organisations to potential research or technology project partners, please contact:  

• Food Agility Innovation Manager, MajellaNolan, majella.nolan@foodagility.com  

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