The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) has two initiatives targeting significant poultry industry issues, SMART Broiler project and the Egg Tech Prize. Dr. Tim Kurt, FFAR scientific program director, will discuss the status of these initiatives at the Poultry Tech Summit, which will be held November 20-22, 2019 at the Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
SMART Broiler
The SMART Broiler research initiative, which was announced on April 2, 2019, is offering $4 million for research supporting the development and commercialization of automated monitoring tools that quantitatively assess key animal welfare indicators in broiler chickens. FFAR is partnering with McDonald’s Corporation as a cofounder on this initiative. The SMART Broiler program is now accepting applications to improve animal welfare.
Egg Tech Prize
FFAR and the Open Philanthropy Project have teamed up to offer up to $6 million to the firm, group, or individual who successfully develops technology that can accurately and rapidly determine a chick’s sex as early as possible in the egg production process. The Egg-Tech Prize encourages the development of innovative technologies that determine a chick’s sex prior to incubation, which may allow male eggs to be directed into the food supply or vaccine production.
The Egg Tech prize is broken out into two distinct phases:
Phase I - Seed Funding is open for concept submissions from March 20, 2019 through May 15, 2019. Phase I provides funding to develop the necessary technology to compete in Phase II. FFAR anticipates granting up to five awards in November 2019.
Phase II - Prize Competition, details available in November 2019. Submissions for consideration can be made in early 2021.
The objective of Phase II is to develop and validate a working prototype that meets the criteria published in late 2019. Participation in Phase II of the competition does not require that a Research Team apply for or receive an award in Phase I.
FFAR build public private partnerships to support innovative science to address today’s food and agriculture challenges. The Poultry Tech Summit focuses on the transition of innovative technologies from researchers and entrepreneurs into commercial applications for the benefit of the poultry industry. This one of its kind event connects researchers and entrepreneurs with poultry sector technology experts, financiers, venture capitalists and producers looking for new projects and investments to fund.
The Poultry Tech Summit is presented by WATT Global Media in collaboration with the Georgia Tech Research Institute, USPOULTRY, and the University of Georgia with support from the World’s Poultry Science Association.
