SmartCow Transnational Access: First Call
Free access to leading cattle research facilities in France, Spain, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland and Denmark
The outcome of the First Call for Transnational Access project, launched in July 2018, was announced at the end of January 2019. Applications were evaluated in a two-stage process involving internal and external reviewers, our ethical committee and facility managers.
The first tranche of projects came from both industry and academic organisations based in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark and Spain. A key requirement of this programme is that research must be conducted in a different country to the applicant’s base. Organisations providing access to their facilities for the projects are: SRUC, University of Reading, Teagasc, Wageningen University and Research, Aarhus University, INRAE and IRTA.
The new projects cover a wide range of nutrition and feed topics – the experimental treatments involved in the various studies are expected to affect animal performance, feed conversion efficiency (particularly the utilisation of dietary protein), cheese quality, methane emissions and cow health and welfare. Other work is using exciting new technologies for monitoring feed quality and animal health status.
First call’s documents and information:
- Rules regarding the operation of the TNA scheme and the selection of projects (Procedural Manual);
- Application forms for the two stages of the call (Pre-proposal Form and Full Proposal Form)
- Consent Form and Data Protection Notice for the processing of applicants’ personal data;
- Descriptions of Facilities Available for TNA Projects
- Priority Research Areas
The deadlines for the first TNA call were:
1st stage application (pre-proposal) deadline: 30th September 2018
2nd stage application (full proposal) deadline: 30th November 2018
The SmartCow Access Management Team was:
- Richard Dewhurst (richard.dewhurst@sruc.ac.uk) – Transnational Access leader
- René Baumont (rene.baumont@inra.fr) – SmartCow Coordinator
- Lene Munksgaard (lene.munksgaard@anis.au.dk)