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Opportunities

MLA: MDC Co-Funding for New Red Meat Industry Technologies

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Opportunity for

  • Expressions of interests (EOI) from publicly funded research organisation’s (PFRO) commercialisation entity who have technology prototype(s) that are ready to be considered for delivering benefits to the Australian red meat and livestock sector. Prototype(s) must be at least partially validated at a low-medium fidelity technology readiness level of 4 or greater and will be evaluated on a first-come-first-served basis against MLA investment decision criteria and priorities.

Opportunity description

Industry challenge: 

MLA Donor Company (MDC) is a fully owned subsidiary of MLA. Its purpose is to attract investment in research, development and adoption (RD&A) for the benefit of the Australian red meat industry. MDC invested $94 million (including partner contributions) in FY24.

Current opportunity: 

MLA invites EOI’s from all publicly funded research organisations (PFRO) with an interest in outcomes that benefit the Australian red meat industry. There is no maximum or minimum project size, only that all submissions are based on 60% participant and 40% MDC co-investment cash contribution. 

MLA is flexible on Intellectual Property (IP) ownership to best drive future commercial success and welcomes a clear adoption pathway for PFRO’s to engage with industry stakeholders in the build, test and launch stages.

For further details, please see the EOI Tech Funding guidelines.

Expression of interest must be lodged electronically using the EOI response template and emailed to [email protected].

For any questions regarding this opportunity, please contact MLA IP team via the ‘Enquire now’ button. 

Applications close 5:00pm (AEST) 1 July 2026.

Opportunity background: 

The following investment priorities focus on areas where solutions are more likely to be ‘commercialisable’ (and therefore likely to both attract co-investment and be of interest to commercialisation offices). MLA is open to co-funded opportunities not included in this list, provided they are of benefit to the Australian red meat industry.

  • Objective measurement: 

    • Technologies to objectively measure health, productivity and eating quality attributes in live animals, carcasses and/or by-co-products e.g. offal (see mla.com.au/om) 

  • Monitoring for health and nutritional status and diet quality: 

    • In-field diagnostic tests for nutritional status of plants and animals 

    • Improve accuracy and frequency of satellite-based monitoring, on-farm remote sensing, and AI video recognition 

    • Real-time decision-making tools and tests for objective decision-making (e.g. crush-side pregnancy detection) 

  • Animal health: 

    • Technologies to address endemic animal diseases in the Australian red meat industry (see mla.com.au/endemic-disease-priorities) 

  • Food innovation 

    • New high-value products that drive full carcase utilisation (see mla.com.au/innovation) 

    • Innovative technology platforms creating new product offerings and shelf life optimisation to value add red meat and by-co-products 

  • Calf loss: 

    • Quantify and / or address calf loss from known reasons such as heat, disease, nutrition, stocking rates, distance to water, predation, mismothering, and other animal behaviour (with a particular focus on northern cattle herds)

  • Female sterilisation: Female sterilisation methods that are non-surgical, reversible, highly effective for a minimum of 12 months, and cost-effective 

  • Parasite management:

    • Technologies to manage parasites such as tick, buffalo fly and internal parasites. Might consist of vaccines, biological control/inhibitors or genomics for resistance against ectoparasites and endoparasites (see mla.com.au/endemic-disease-priorities) 

    • Longer-lasting fly management options that are effective for 6–8 months 

  • Carrying capacity: 

    • Technology / Methodology for assessment of long-term carrying capacity components like pasture growth, safe utilisation rates, and browse consumption 

  • Pasture improvement 

    • Pasture species measurement 

    • Impact of pasture improvements on greenhouse gas emissions 

    • Grazing behaviour through GPS data tracking 

    • New tools for pasture seed distribution and establishment 

    • Methane mitigation: Easy-to-use, affordable technologies or processes to reduce methane production in extensively grazed cattle with production efficiency benefits 

  • Carbon footprint assessment: 

    • Tools to assist in reliable and standardised methodologies for benchmarking and assessing carbon footprints (including standardised measurements of carbon sequestration in rangelands) 

  • Lamb survival and weaning rates: 

    • Technologies and processes to improve lamb survival and weaning rates 

  • Remote monitoring and management: 

    • Technologies to enable remote, whole-of-livestock-system monitoring for improved productivity and management efficiency 

  • Female sheep efficiency and reproductive success: 

    • Technologies to improve weaner to maiden ewe development/growth and nutrition 

    • Technologies to measure stress in weaners, in particular weaner behaviour and metabolic indicators 

  • Farm safety: 

    • Technologies that reduce agricultural workplace injuries and fatalities. Farming continues to be the highest risk occupation in Australia 

  • Predation/invasive species control: 

    • Technologies to monitor and control predation and invasive species

EVOKEAG17FEB2026

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