Deadline: 10-Sep-21
The Agricultural Development Fund (ADF) is now open for applications to provide $3 million in funding towards projects that demonstrate strong support and active partnership from industry, and a clear strategy to deliver on-farm impacts and contribute to sustainable growth and jobs in agriculture.
Priorities
Preference will be given to funding for:
- Climate-responsive agriculture Projects that help support producers to reduce their emissions; adapt to and prepare for the impacts of climate change; and leverage opportunities for growth, including drought preparedness and resilience.
- Biosecurity and risk mitigation Projects that assist farmers and agribusiness to continue to identify, plan for, and manage biosecurity hazards and threats.
- Digital transformation Projects that assist the agricultural sector to address digital skills gaps and share information and technology to support more efficient practices that improve productivity.
- Rapid response Projects that respond rapidly to material threats and minimise adverse impacts to the Tasmanian agribusiness sector.
Funding Information
- Up to $3 million will be available in the 2021-22 opening grant fund round.
- As a guide, proponents may seek up to $1 million from the ADF for a project, noting that value for money and co-investment from project partners are key considerations in the assessment process.
- Proponents seeking funding in excess of $500,000 will need to:
- Provide rigorous information to support their application, including a quantified economic impact analysis; and
- Demonstrate broad industry and/or community benefit.
- The type of projects that may be considered for funding in excess of $500,000 include:
- Projects with potential to deliver step-change in productivity;
- Projects for which this level of investment will leverage funding from other sources; and
- Projects that can demonstrate that they will deliver jobs or increased job security.
Note As a guide, projects should be undertaken within a three-year timeframe.
Eligible expenditure
Funds received through the ADF are to be directed primarily to new research, development and extension activities that directly lead to the delivery of project outputs and outcomes. For example, grant money from the ADF cannot be used for:
- Subsidising overhead (indirect) costs such as electricity, phone or rent;
- Activities that were already underway before the execution of the Deed for the ADF;
- Business-as-usual activities for the recipients such as computing hardware;
- Hospitality for the purpose of entertaining clients or the project team;
- Capital expenditure or construction works valued at more than 10 per cent of the grant amount.
Eligible proponents
- The proponent may be from the Tasmanian public or private sector, provided that the project addresses a genuine need identified by Tasmanian industry and involves demonstrable collaboration with industry partners.
- The quality of the partnership approach and the potential for the project to build collaboration between the public sector, industry sectors and researchers are factors that will be considered in the assessment of the project.
For more information, visit https://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/agriculture/government-and-community-programs/agricultural-development-fund