Mr D Miles AM
Chair
CRC Program Review
via email: crcreview@industry.gov.au
RE: Review of the CRC Program
Dear Mr. Miles,
The Pork CRC board welcomes the opportunity to provide comment on the CRC review.
Background
There have been two Pork CRCs. The first ran from July 2005 to July 2011 as the CRC for an
Internationally Competitive Pork Industry. The current Pork CRC - CRC for High Integrity Australian
Pork (CRC HIAP) - commenced in July 2011 and runs until 2018-2019.
Both were initiated by industry with research programs designed around industry issues and
objectives.
The first Pork CRC was all about efficiency and cost reduction and was acknowledged by industry as
a success. The Pork CRC brought the industry and research community back together at a time
when investment in R&D had been significantly diminished. Without the CRC Programme there
would have been no catalyst for this to occur. The establishment of the CRC subsequently
reinvigorated industry research as a whole with more targeted and active programs within
Australian Pork Limited (APL), government and the private sector. The first Pork CRC provided
industry with a range of new information and technologies for improving international
competitiveness, trained some 23 postgraduates, many (17) of whom are now employed in industry,
and achieved a cooperative approach to R&D and pre-competitive information sharing among the
three biggest pork businesses in Australia which benefited them all and the industry in general.
The success of the first Pork CRC and the value of the CRC program for bringing science and industry
together are probably best illustrated by the fact that the cash contribution committed by
participants increased between the first and second CRCs from $9.6m to $18.4 million. In-kind
contributions increased from $42.9 to $93.7 million. The first Pork CRC provided industry with a new
research model incorporating research facilities within commercial businesses rather than within
research institutions (base funding), filled gaps in industry capability and genuinely brought science
and industry together for the benefit of researchers and industry.
The second Pork CRC is all about differentiating the Australian pork industry from its global
competitors and particularly those who export pork to Australia, and is an integral component of
APL’s shaping your future program. At the time the industry faced tremendous challenges and costs
associated with the transition in how pork is produced and initially with the change from stall to
group housing of pregnant sows.
With five years remaining for the CRC for High Integrity Australian Pork, industry has made a very
conscious decision to transition to a new model. The industry does not see the CRC Programme as a
perpetual source of cash, but the success of the model is such that industry wants to maintain the
collaborative approach to targeted research. Without the CRC model we would not have the
confidence to pursue this option.
Ensuring research and industry challenges and opportunities are aligned
Our essential participants include the three largest pork producers in Australia, Australian Pork
Limited which represents all Australian pork producers, the WA Agricultural Produce commission
which represents WA pork producers, the NZ Pork board who represent NZ pork producers,
Australia’s largest feed manufacturer (Ridley AgriProducts) and four universities (Melbourne,
Sydney, Adelaide and Murdoch). All essential participants contribute a minimum of $75,000 cash
annually to the CRC. Our other participants include Woolworths, RSPCA, many SMEs and six other
Australian universities.
The Universities contribute cash to Pork CRC and have been actively involved in research and
training across our four research programs. All but one of the universities (University of SA) have
conducted components of their research projects within commercial facilities through base funding
and discuss the implications of their research outcomes with the businesses in which the research
was conducted and with industry in general. For the pork industry the CRC model genuinely brings
science and business together and both have been a boon for industry.
Research and training is being conducted across the whole supply chain and with international
companies and universities. In its first three years the CRC HIAP has provided producers with
information on how the transition to group housing of pregnant sows can be achieved to improve
sow welfare while maintaining reproductive efficiency, developed a range of new diagnostic tools
for the common diseases in Australia, discovered some rather simple, but scientifically based,
technologies for reducing the impact of disease on animal health and performance, and invested in
some what might be termed blue sky technologies with CSIRO and others to innovatively control
disease in the future. We have also involved the whole supply chain (producer to retailer) in
research on improving the eating quality of Australian pork and made excellent progress in reducing
the carbon foot print of the industry through the production and use of biogas, improved grain and
feed utilization and the use of algae to remediate piggery effluent.
In all cases, the research priorities are set by participants and, importantly, industry which is
represented on our board and the R&D Committee. R&D Committee members attend the annual
program review where progress in all programs is reviewed with program leaders and where
research priorities are set based on CRC milestones and, more importantly, changes in industry
circumstances and challenges. Feedback on R&D priorities from all stakeholders is also provided to
the CRC at the annual stakeholder conference, attended by over 80 industry and research
representatives each year.
Base Funding
Pork CRC and APL support base funded facilities at three commercial companies (Rivalea Australia,
Cameron, Hall and McLean, and Australian Pork Farms Group)at two state government organisations
(South Australian Research and Development Institute (SA) and Department of Agriculture and Food
WA), and at the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney. Base funding was introduced in the first Pork
CRC to combat the continual loss of R&D facilities and staff across Australia, particularly in State
governments, which severely limited industry research capability. Base funding ensures discovery
type and commercial facilities are available for industry R&D, markedly reduces the cash costs of
R&D (by around 50% based on empirical “before” and “after” figures) and enables researchers and
students to conduct their research in commercial facilities. The facilities have been fully utilised by
Pork CRC and APL since their inception.
Base funding has seen the expansion of research facilities and staff across the base funded
organisations, increased collaboration between scientists and industry and enabled the training and
employment of Pork CRC students in industry. Base funding also enhances the uptake of research
outcomes by industry through the direct relationship and relevance of outcomes to commercial
operations.
Pork CRC could not have achieved its research and utilization outcomes without base funding and
the new model for research and cooperation across the industry was made possible by the CRC
program and model and would not have occurred without it. The extent the CRC model can
markedly expand industry research and training capabilities should not be underestimated.
The value of the CRC model to business is illustrated by the response of Dr Brian Luxford to a board
survey on Pork CRC impacts on industry. Dr Luxford is the research and innovation manager for
Rivalea Australia (Australia’s largest pork production and processing company)
Dr Luxford’s response was:
“The CRC with its emphasis on collaboration has also provided significant opportunities for
interaction with both other producers and scientific groups. The benchmarking program
established by the CRC is one example. This program provides a forum where producers can
jointly seek solutions to improve productivity. The development of the base funding model has
brought additional researchers utilizing Rivalea’s facilities. This has provided additional
opportunities for exchange of ideas”.
Ensuring education and industry is aligned
Pork CRC introduced an Industry Placement Award into its Education Program. This was in response
to demand by industry for training students in the business of pork production and was favoured by
end users over postgraduate and post doc awards –though they are somewhat interrelated.
The award is open to any pork or related business. The business identifies a suitable ‘student’ and
applies for the award. The award entails Pork CRC providing the successful applicant (business)
with $35,000 annually for two years. The successful applicant agrees to employ the individual for
three years, provide the individual with business training/development agreed with Pork CRC,
identify a mentoring group to develop the individual during the placement, agrees to make the
individual available for five Pork CRC training activities/events and allows the individual to be
actively involved in Pork CRC and internal research projects within the business or within facilities
at other Pork CRC participant organisations.
Four awards have been made in the first three years of the current Pork CRC. Three of these have
been in pork production and research (within pork businesses) and one in pork processing within an
integrated pork business. The first Industry Placement completed the first two years of the
agreement in 2014 and the individual involved (Dr Rebecca Athorn) has been offered a permanent
position with the company involved. Feedback provided by both the company and individual has
been very positive, and Pork CRC is looking to make more awards under the scheme.
All Pork CRC undergraduate, postgraduate students and post doc and Industry placement award
holders attend the Pork CRC science into practice course held in Roseworthy each January, attend
mentoring and development courses run by Pork CRC and APL annually, and attend major industry
events including the Victorian Pig Fair, the Pan Pacific Pork Expo and APSA. They get good exposure
to industry and the majority of student projects are conducted in commercial facilities. We have
also achieved joint funding of Post docs with Universities, Pork CRC and business.
The value of the education program to industry is illustrated by Dr Brian Luxford’s (Rivalea
Australia) response to a board survey of end users on education and training.
“Apart from the obvious bottom line value of the research results, the Pork CRC has provided
a number of additional benefits for Rivalea. The CRC has provided advanced training
opportunities for a number of our existing staff including one PhD program which is near
completion. Also we have employed additional research staffs who have come out of CRC
programs. Employment of trained staff is becoming increasingly difficult”.
We suggest schemes like the Industry Placement Program might strengthen the education program
and better meet the needs of industry partners across CRCs.
Conclusions
The CRC program was developed to bring science and industry together to benefit industry and the
broader community.
For the pork industry the CRC model has achieved these objectives and the two Pork CRCs have
definitely benefited industry and brought about collaboration between industry and researchers and
research organisations that has benefited all involved.
We are sure similar achievements have been made across the majority of CRCs given their goal is to
bring science and industry together and the CRC model where appropriate should be expanded and
strengthened rather than wound back or incorporated with less inclusive and less effective models
such as the ARC Linkage Grant.
The model can be strengthened we believe by firstly ensuring any application has strong and wide
industry support. The latter can be gauged from the industry issues to be addressed by the proposed
CRC, the impact their resolution will have on industry and Australia’s competiveness in general, and
the cash contribution to the CRC by industry. The latter should be at least 50% of the total cash
requested from government and industry. In kind contributions should be adequate to enable the
objectives to be achieved with the cash available and the extent the latter is able to be leveraged.
The output and utilisation milestones in any CRC should be based on major outcomes and limited in
number and able to be changed as changes in industry circumstances may demand.
Similarly, education milestones and programs should be better aligned with industry needs rather
than based on sheer numbers which is often currently the case. The success of the program needs to
be extended to the employment of those recruited to the education program.
Second and subsequent applications should be able to validate the benefits of previous CRC
investment for industry and the balance between government and industry cash contributions
skewed towards industry. For example a second CRC bid by the same industry should require
participants to provide 70% of the total cash requested.
Given the excellent leverage of government funds by CRCs the government might want to consider
contributing minimal cash funds to CRC transition plans and models to help ensure they are
sustainable and to ensure the legacy of CRCs.
Otherwise our experience with the CRC program has been excellent. We have few problems working
collaboratively with Australia’s major universities and other research organisations to deliver good
science for the benefit of industry.
Proactive participation by industry through hosting base-funded facilities, investing significant
cash, participation on the Board of the CRC (together with independent non-executive directors)
and collaborative development and implementation of research priorities and outcomes is a key to
the success of the CRC program. This hands-on participation ensures that the research projects are
designed in a way that the outputs are ‘industry ready’ and adopted quickly.
Signed on behalf of the directors of Pork CRC
By
Dr Roger Campbell
CEO