The NITMETFUN consortium involves five institutions, including three fully contracting partners: (1) Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST, LU, PI), the Microbial Biotechnology team; (2) University of Liège (ULiège, BE; co-applicant), Animal Sciences at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, and (3) the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (UGiessen; DE), the Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics. The non-contracting partner is (4) the Walloon Agricultural Research Centre (CRA-W), while (5) CONVIS is a subcontractor, responsible for sampling and dissemination in LU.