Project description
Innovative solution to end chick culling
In the egg-laying hen industry, over 7 billion male chicks are culled annually because they are neither suitable for egg production nor profitable for meat. This practice raises ethical concerns and contributes to substantial waste in poultry farming. The current methods of sexing chicks are invasive, costly, and inefficient. Addressing this urgent problem is crucial for improving animal welfare and sustainability. The EIC-funded Omegga project offers a solution with its cost-effective, non-invasive spectral imaging technology. This innovation automates the detection of a chick’s sex within the egg, allowing hatcheries to remove male eggs early. Developed by a multidisciplinary team, Omegga's technology meets new regulatory requirements, promising a revolution in poultry farming.
Objective
Omegga - World’s first low-cost in-ovo sexing solution to finally end chick culling
In the egg-laying hen industry, over 7 billion day-old roosters are killed each year, because male layer chickens neither lay eggs nor produce enough meat to be profitable. Omegga developed a cost-effective, non-invasive, spectral imaging solution for automating sex detection of chicken embryos in the eggs to avoid the unethical practice of chick culling by enabling hatcheries to remove early male eggs from incubators and only hatch female-layer chicks. The Omegga technology is based on absorption spectroscopy and tracks sex specific biological indicators (proprietary method), enabling cost-effective, non-invasive, automated determination of an egg's sex. The solution aligns with ethical practices, supports sustainable farming, and meets emerging regulatory requirements against male chick culling.
Our team of 9 entrepreneurs, SW/HW/Bio engineers, data scientists and veterinarian developed the technology, and built & tested a first, small scale industrial prototype. Now we must create large scale prototypes for full automation and optimise classification algorithms to minimise costs, for which we need EIC support. Once implemented, it will boost resource efficiency and animal welfare in the poultry industry.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-EIC-ACC-BF - HORIZON EIC Accelerator Blended Finance
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2023-ACCELERATOR-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
80797 MUNICH
Germany
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.