Search

Project reporting templates

MLA Donor Company (MDC) is a fully-owned subsidiary of Meat & Livestock Australia, accelerating innovation across the value chain so the Australian red meat and livestock industry can remain competitive on the world stage.

MLA invests in both on-farm and off-farm research and development projects with a wide range of project partners, including producer groups, peak industry councils, the CSIRO, leading Australian universities and international research centres. The R&D program is largely funded by producer levies, with matched funding from the Federal Government. Levies are also collected by the processing, lotfeeding and live export sectors, for investment in projects that support the red meat supply chain beyond the farm gate. Non-levy R&D funding is provided by industry partners through the MLA Donor Company. In 2014-15 MLA invested $92.9 million in red meat R&D projects, covering areas as diverse as genetics, environmental sustainability, feeding and finishing and meat safety.

MLA is primarily funded by transaction levies paid on livestock sales by producers, which it uses to support research and development activities. The Australian Government also contributes a dollar for each levy dollar MLA invests in eligible research and development under a Statutory Funding Agreement (SFA).

Non-tender project applicants should carefully review this page and the MLA Project Funding Application Guidelines before completing their preliminary or detailed project application.

Participate in industry research

MLA’s Producer Investment Call is designed to fund the research, development and adoption activities that address producer priorities using levies from grassfed beef and sheepmeat. These priorities are identified by producers through the regional committees and are consolidated by NABRC, SALRC and WALRC. MLA uses these priorities to form the Terms of Reference for the project call. The Project Call seeks the submission of proposals for research, development and adoption projects that are aligned with the Terms of Reference for funding consideration.

MLA supports the bridge from education to agricultural research through its postgraduate program, postdoctoral program and various scholarships.