Australian Government’s National Landcare Program: Smart Farms Small Grants

Deadline: 11 January 2019

Australian Government’s National Landcare Program is seeking applications for its Smart Farms Small Grants which is an open, competitive, grant opportunity to support one- to two-year projects to increase farming, forestry and fishing communities’ awareness, knowledge, skills and capacity to adopt sustainable natural resource management best practice.

The Australian Government’s National Landcare Program aims to protect, conserve and provide for the productive use of Australia’s water, soil, plants and animals and the ecosystems in which they live and interact, in partnership with industry, communities and other governments.

The Australian Government’s policy purpose for Smart Farms Small Grants is to support land manager practice change and to deliver more productive and profitable agriculture, fishing, aquaculture and forestry industries; protect Australia’s biodiversity; protect and improve the condition of natural resources (in particular on-farm soils, water and vegetation); and assist Australia meet its international obligations.

Outcomes

Outcome 1 – Doing and fostering sustainable natural resource management best practice
Outcome 2 – Capacity building for sustainable natural resource management

Funding Information

Grant applications for a minimum of $5 000 or maximum of $200 000 (GST exclusive) will be considered for projects focused on achieving one or both of the outcomes mentioned above.
A total of $9.2 million is available for Smart Farms Small Grants Round 2.
All projects should be completed within two years of executing a grant agreement.
Applications may be made for projects in one of four tiers:
- Tier 1 projects are for grants of between $5 000 and $50 000 for Outcome 1 only, or for both Outcomes 1 and 2
- Tier 2 projects are for grants of between $5 000 and $50 000 for Outcome 2 only
- Tier 3 projects are for grants worth between $50 001 and $100 000
- Tier 4 projects are for grants worth between $100 001 and $200 000.
They will allocate a portion of the total funding available for Round 2 to each tier after applications close.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to apply for a grant applicants must be an individual or an organisation capable of entering into a legally binding and enforceable agreement with the Commonwealth. Eligible legal entities include the following entity types:
- Commonwealth company
- Company
- Cooperative
- Corporate Commonwealth entity
- Corporate state or territory entity
- Incorporated association
- Indigenous corporation
- Individual or natural person
- International entity
- Local government
- Non-corporate state or territory entity or statutory authority
- Partnership
- Sole trader
- Statutory entity
- Trustee on behalf of a trust.
Applications from consortia are acceptable, as long as applicants have a lead applicant who is eligible and who will be solely accountable to the Commonwealth for the delivery of grant activities.