Subscribe to MLA's e-newsletters
Stay informed with the latest red meat and livestock industry news, events, research and marketing.
Producer Investment Call
MLA’s Producer Investment Call is a crucial step in MLA’s producer consultation process. This is where levy payers can have their say on priority areas for MLA to invest in.
The Producer Investment Call is designed to maximise producer input, give sufficient time for researchers to write effective research proposals and engage producers for input and accommodate MLA’s strategic partnerships and MDC funding where appropriate.
How does the Producer Investment Call work?
The Research Advisory Councils submit research, development and adoption (RD&A) priorities to MLA every two years. MLA provides feedback on these priorities before the Extended Red Meat Panel workshop is held. This workshop brings together the Regional Committee Chairs, the Research Advisory Council Chairs, the Red Meat Panel (RMP) and the relevant MLA Program Managers. At this workshop, a list of national RD&A priorities is finalised.
From here, the relevant MLA Program Managers develop a ‘Terms of Reference’ (TOR), incorporating the feedback they received at the workshop. The TOR outlines the scope and impact of a project required to meet the RD&A priority. Each TOR is submitted to the RMP for feedback and endorsement. Once the TOR is approved by the RMP, a Producer Investment Call is announced.
A call for applications is announced encouraging the submission of proposals for RD&A projects aligned with the Terms of Reference for funding consideration.
An Expert Panel and producer representatives assess the proposals and select which projects to fund, ensuring the RD&A activities in each project will address the priorities set out in the producer consultation process.
2022–24 Producer Investment Call
The Producer Investment Call is flexible.
MLA calls for projects as funding becomes available within a two-year cycle.
Current Terms of Reference for the Producer Investment Call are published here: Current tenders
How the Call aligns with MLA’s Strategic Plan
Under MLA’s Strategic Plan, one of our guiding principles is to direct resources into fewer, higher-impact programs of work that will deliver the best outcomes for industry (fewer, bigger, bolder).
Based on this principle, longer-term, collaborative, multi-disciplinary projects have recently been developed to tackle some of industry’s key priorities, such as lamb survival, calf survival and associated reproductive performance (as identified through the producer consultation process). These projects are longer-term programs of work and are expected to run through the 2022–23 year and beyond.
As we deliver on the Strategic Plan, all parts of MLA are continuing to change the way we plan and deliver our work, with a goal of achieving the greatest impact for levy-payers – and the research, development and adoption programs that are critical to the success of the strategy.
Last year’s Producer Investment Call process was reflective of this shift in strategic approach – with a focus on longer-term, three-to-five year, collaborative and multi-disciplinary programs of work. These larger-scale, longer-term projects are now underway and utilise a significant portion of the research funding for 2022–23. As such, there will not be a call for new R&D projects this year.
