American Rescue Plan Centers of Excellence for Meat and Poultry Processing and Food Safety Research and Innovation Phase III

The MPPRI Program is part of the broader USDA investment to transform the food supply chain. Given that the meat and poultry processing sector is particularly vulnerable to disruption, increasing capacity and promoting competition in this sector is a high priority for USDA. Therefore, the USDA MPPRI awards will provide grants as equity-free (nondiluted) funding to promote private sector companies with SBIR/STTR Phase I/II success for the integration of technology that has been developed, with minimal additional research required, to impact technology advancements and adoption to benefit the supply chain resilience of small and midsize meat and poultry processors.

. Eligibility Requirements 1. NIFA selected current and previously awarded SBIR/STTR Phase I/II recipients. 2. Companies were selected based upon SBIR/STTR project completion in areas that represent potential fits with demonstrated efficacy for applications in meat and poultry processing. 5 3. Expected stage of technologies should correspond to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 through TRL 7. TRLs for reference are as described in TRL Stage Definition, Table 1. ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS: 4. Technology providers must provide non-restrictive access or non-exclusive licenses for any technologies or related enabling technologies developed under this award to facilitate the ability of the small and mid-size processor to implement the technology. Exclusive licensing is not allowable for technologies developed under this award. 5. Eligibility requires businesses to be located within the United States. The purpose of the ownership requirement is to limit the program to companies controlled by United States citizens or permanent resident aliens as a way of maximizing the likelihood that the funding will stimulate innovative activity within the United States economy.