2024-2025 Request for Proposals

The Meat Foundation is a non-profit research, education, and scholarship foundation with a mission to advance scientific understanding, cultivate future leaders, and support continuous improvement in the meat industry. The Foundation invites full proposals in beef food safety.

POST_FS1 - Evaluate critical contamination points for beef products, from arriving at a slaughter establishment to shipping, utilizing quantitative data, and identify key locations for targeted interventions.

POST_FS2 - Explore innovative pathogen control measures and parameters for fresh beef. Controls evaluated should address pathogens such as Salmonella and STEC growth and survival.

POST_FS3 - Explore innovative pathogen control measures and parameters for further processed beef items. Controls evaluated should address pathogens such as L. monocytogenes, S. aureus, and C. perfringens growth and survival. Research should focus on potential controls outside of those well documented in existing safe harbors (such as Appendices A and B) and scientific literature and may or may not include a focus on clean label products.

POST_FS4 - In collaboration with industry, develop best practices for the dry and semi-dry fermented products as well as dry cured items. Best practices should consider current regulatory requirements. The outcome of this project should be an updated version of the Interim Good Manufacturing Practices for Fermented Dry and Semi-Dry Sausage Products.

POST_FS5 – Explore how Salmonella populations change (level and type) over the course of beef processing and storage.

POST_FS6 – Investigate the reliability and repeatability of rapid Salmonella quantification technologies and methods. Research should focus on lower levels of contamination (1, 10, and 100 CFU/g or mL) and be applicable to beef items. Research may also include how to improve the accuracy of the estimated level of Salmonella present in products using existing technologies within a testing timeline that is commercially acceptable for the industry.

POST_FS7 – Evaluate the genetic changes of beef-related STEC and Salmonella isolates in the NCBI database and other global databases, across time and geographic regions (within the US and globally). Research should inform how quickly or slowly populations change and identify patterns across time and geographic regions that could inform risks.

Proposals must be submitted on the Foundation’s website using the Research Proposal Submission Form. One form should be completed for each proposal submission. Only one priority may be selected for each proposal submission. If a proposal fits more than one priority, choose the most appropriate priority, and additional priorities may be mentioned in the project description section. Within the submission form, you will not be able to italicize, bold, and underline words. The form will also not spell check your submission. Any attachments (figures, graphs, letters of support, etc.) may be added at the bottom of the form. Please only submit PDF files. The indirect costs policy is available here.

Proposal Submission Guidelines

Each proposal should include the elements below:

Title of Proposal
Principal Investigator(s) Name(s) and Affiliation(s)
Priority
Budget
Timeline
Project Details (2500 Word Count Limit)

• Project Hypothesis and Objectives
• Experimental Plan – Including description of the methodology, experimental design and statistical analysis plan, pitfalls that may be encountered, limitations to proposed methodology; and
• Proposed Benefit to the Industry

Other Sources of Support: including letters of support and investigators CV’s may be submitted as an attachment.

If you have any questions on the proposal submission process or form or the research priorities, please contact the Meat Foundation at research@meatfoundation.org. The Foundation’s indirect costs policy is available here. Submit your proposals online by 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, October 22. Grants will be awarded in January 2025.