MORE than $16 million worth of research projects have been put forth to Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) under the pilot Producer Innovation Fast-Track program. The Producer Innovation Fast-Track program was established this year to accelerate research projects that are also partly funded by producers themselves. Applications fall under three areas; on-farm productivity improvements, innovations and insights that participate in the value chain and new venture entrepreneurial ideas.  Successful applications receive 75 per cent co-investment by the MLA Donor Company (MDC) to go alongside 25 per cent by producers.  Applications have now closed after MLA received 90 applications, including the Pimelea research project, that were a total of four to five times above the financial value they were expecting. MLA are currently reviewing the applications with those who are successful to be notified in the coming months. MDC chief executive officer Dr Christine Pitt said the Donor Company itself had $180 million worth of projects underway but this new initiative was aimed at working on projects faster because they were important to farmers who were willing to financially support them. MDC have received ideas for genetics work, soil health and animal nutrition pastures along with new products and brands that could get producer’s closer to customers.  Dr Pitt said some of the entrepreneurial work included ag-tech solutions, drones and sensors but also work in food innovation.  “This Producer Innovation Fast Track is a new innovation and we realised grassroots family, smaller farming enterprise businesses were not participating to the level that we thought in the donor program which is why we developed the program,” she said. “We designed the program with producers and then we launched it this year.” While the program is only a pilot at this stage Dr Pitt said she was hopeful that the overwhelming response would be an encouraging reason to continue the initiative. “We had no idea what sort of traction we would get,” she said. “Grass roots businesses, family business don’t have a whole lot of money to throw around. “The real benefit we see is that this is a project in the way it is designed with grass roots (that) producers and researchers will be working hand in hand.”  For more information on the MLA Donor Company click HERE