Awarded Grants
Below is a listing of our awarded grants that tackle big food and agriculture challenges.

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11 Grants found

Noninvasive Wellness Monitoring of Broiler Growout Using Continuous Audio Analytics (2022)

Development of an Automated Broiler Gait Score and Flock Activity Assessment System

Smart Monitoring of Broiler Welfare using Camera Technology and Machine Learning

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Flockfocus – Developing Automated Surveillance Tools to Safeguard Chicken Welfare (2025) 

Year Awarded  2025

Total award amount   $399,616

Location   Belfast, Northern Ireland

Program   SMART Broiler

Matching Funders   McDonald's Corporation and in-kind support from multiple partners

Grantee Institution   Queen’s University Belfast

Existing methods for assessing animal welfare rely on human observation and subjective scoring which can be inaccurate and time consuming. This research provides additional funding from phase I of the SMART Broiler program to transfer intelligent surveillance techniques used for tracking humans to provide real time monitoring of individual birds within a flock. This camera-based technology, called FlockFocus, represents a significant improvement to monitoring technology currently available to the industry and has the potential for revolutionizing animal welfare in other sectors.

OpticFlock: Automated Monitoring of Chicken Behavior That Prioritizes Animal Welfare – Part II 

Year Awarded  2025

FFAR award amount   $271,865

Location   Oxford, United Kingdom

Program   SMART Broiler

Matching Funders   McDonald’s Corporation

Grantee Institution   University of Oxford

Existing methods for assessing animal welfare rely on human observation and subjective scoring which can be inaccurate and time consuming. This research provides additional funding from Phase I of the SMART Broiler program to refine and extend the testing of a novel camera and computer system called OPTICFLOCK to compare key welfare outcomes, including hockburn, foot pad lesions and lameness, in commercial flocks. Additionally, this project incorporates strategies to facilitate producer adoption of OPTICFLOCK technology.

Noninvasive Wellness Monitoring of Broiler Growout Using Continuous Audio Analytics (2022) 

Year Awarded  2022

FFAR award amount   $300,000

Location   Atlanta, GA

Program   SMART Broiler

Matching Funders   McDonald’s Corporation and Tyson Foods

Grantee Institution   AudioT

This research is developing a scalable, low-cost audio-monitoring tool that tracks bird vocalizations to alert farmers to broiler welfare and behavior. Bird vocalizations can provide insight into flock status and can be a complementary tool to video-based systems.

Flockfocus – Developing Automated Surveillance Tools to Safeguard Chicken Welfare (2022) 

Year Awarded  2022

Total award amount   $1,000,000

Location   Belfast, Northern Ireland

Program   SMART Broiler

Matching Funders   McDonald's Corporation and in-kind support from multiple partners

Grantee Institution   Queen’s University Belfast

Existing methods for assessing animal welfare rely on human observation and subjective scoring which can be inaccurate and time consuming.This research is transferring intelligent surveillance techniques used for tracking humans to provide real time monitoring of individual birds within a flock. This camera-based technology, called FlockFocus, represents a significant improvement to monitoring technology currently available to the industry and has the potential for revolutionizing animal welfare in other sectors.

OPTICFLOCK: Welfare benefits of automated assessment of broiler chicken welfare 

Year Awarded  2022

FFAR award amount   $325,000

Location   Oxford, United Kingdom

Program   SMART Broiler

Matching Funders   McDonald’s Corporation, Munters and Tyson Foods

Grantee Institution   University of Oxford

Existing methods for assessing animal welfare rely on human observation and subjective scoring which can be inaccurate and time consuming.This research is refining and extending the testing of a novel camera and computer system called OPTICFLOCK. The project is comparing key welfare outcomes, including hockburn, foot pad lesions and lameness, in commercial flocks managed with or without the technology and incorporates strategies to facilitate producer adoption of OPTICFLOCK technology.

Noninvasive Wellness Monitoring of Broiler Growout Using Continuous Audio Analytics 

Year Awarded  2020

FFAR award amount   $180,000

Total award amount   $445,000

Location   Atlanta, Georgia

Program   SMART Broiler

Matching Funders   McDonald’s Corporation, Tyson Foods, Fielddale Farms and Amazon

Grantee Institution   AudioT

Existing methods for assessing animal welfare rely on human observation and subjective scoring which can be inaccurate and time consuming. AudioT researchers are developing audio-based monitoring tools that analyze bird vocalizations and alert farmers to broiler welfare and behavior concerns.

Development of an Automated Broiler Gait Score and Flock Activity Assessment System 

Year Awarded  2020

FFAR award amount   $350,000

Total award amount   $513,214

Location   Knoxville, TN

Program   SMART Broiler

Matching Funders   McDonald’s Corporation, Peco Foods, Inc. and University of Tennessee AgResearch

Grantee Institution   University of Tennessee

Existing methods for assessing animal welfare rely on human observation and subjective scoring which can be inaccurate and time consuming. University of Tennessee researchers are using multi-angle and multi-range cameras to monitor commercial broilers at both individual and flock levels and measure their walking ability and level of activity. This grant was awarded through our SMART Broiler research initiative.

Smart Monitoring of Broiler Welfare using Camera Technology and Machine Learning 

Year Awarded  2020

FFAR award amount   $499,639

Total award amount   $1,000,039

Location   Vejen, Denmark

Program   SMART Broiler

Matching Funders   McDonald’s Corporation, Scio+ and SKOV A/S

Grantee Institution   Wageningen University & Research

Existing methods for assessing animal welfare rely on human observation and subjective scoring which can be inaccurate and time consuming. Big Dutchman researchers are using camera technology and advanced image analysis to continuously monitor commercial broiler flocks, map welfare assessments and estimate walking ability. This grant was awarded through our SMART Broiler research initiative.

Innovative On-Farm Broiler Welfare Assessment Using Imaging Techniques 

Year Awarded  2020

FFAR award amount   $500,000

Total award amount   $610,000

Location   Wageningen, Netherlands

Program   SMART Broiler

Matching Funders   McDonald’s Corporation, Plukon Food Group, CLK GmbH and Utrecht University

Grantee Institution   Wageningen University & Research

Existing methods for assessing animal welfare rely on human observation and subjective scoring which can be inaccurate and time consuming. Researchers are using an affordable camera-based system and artificial intelligence that automatically and continuously monitors broiler chickens' gait and welfare, ultimately increasing farmer productivity and profitability. This grant was awarded through our SMART Broiler research initiative.

Flockfocus – Developing Automated Surveillance Tools to Safeguard Chicken Welfare 

Year Awarded  2020

Total award amount   $310,738

Location   Belfast, Northern Ireland

Program   SMART Broiler

Matching Funders   McDonald's Corporation and in-kind support from multiple partners

Grantee Institution   Queens University Belfast

Existing methods for assessing animal welfare rely on human observation and subjective scoring which can be inaccurate and time consuming. Queen’s University Belfast researchers are developing a vision-based system to monitor large numbers of birds and track individual activity patterns.