Successful Cooperative Research Centre-Project (CRC-P) Application

APRIL is very pleased to announce that an application submitted in Round 11 of the Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) government program titled Eliminating pig tail removal to improve welfare and industry sustainability, with SunPork Pty Ltd. as the Lead Applicant, has been supported by the Australian Government. View the announcement here.

Partners in this 3-year project are APRIL, Australian Pork Limited, PIC Australasia Pty Ltd., Rivalea (Australia) Pty Ltd., RSPCA Australia, The University of Melbourne, The University of Queensland, and the University of New England.

The application requested, and received, an Australian Government cash investment of $2,892,374 over 3 years, which combined with the project partners’ cash contribution of $1,638,742 ($750,000 from APRIL), has been able to leverage an additional $3,345,078 of combined in-kind contributions from the partners. As the major cash contributor to the project, this represents an overall leverage for APRIL of ~ 10.5:1.

Dr Robert van Barneveld, Group CEO and Managing Director of the SunPork Group, says that the project will adopt a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to solving this industry-wide issue, with the aim being to provide pork producers with the confidence to raise pigs with intact tails while maintaining high standards of pig welfare.

APRIL CEO and Chief Scientist Dr John Pluske said the grant was noteworthy and timely, and directly addressed a key Transformational Project objective in APRIL’s Strategic Plan. The project will also provide opportunities for support and training for a number of Honours students, postgraduate students, and early-career scientists.

This successful CRC-P award is an excellent example of developing highly productive cooperative partnerships and making the most of world-leading research with organisations coming together to work in a collaborative and cohesive manner to address all-of-industry issues. The award also demonstrates the capacity for APRIL to successfully partner with other organisations to leverage external funding for a major research project of industry-wide importance.

For further information as to how APRIL can function to support industry-led research and development for the pork industry, please contact APRIL Chief Scientist/CEO Dr John Pluske.