Future Drought Fund: Offering up to $2 million – Australia

Deadline: 23-Dec-20

The Australian Government is inviting applications to deliver services under the Future Drought Fund: Drought Resilience Research and Adoption Program – Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs (Hubs).

This program will establish eight regionally-focused Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs. The Hubs will be located in regional areas that reflect the key agricultural and climatic zones across the country.

The Hubs will be multidisciplinary and inclusive ensuring that the focus of the Hubs is to support agricultural industries and communities to adapt, reorganise and transform so that they are more resilient to future droughts.

Funding Information

• The total funding available under this grant opportunity is $64 million (GST exclusive) to support eight Hubs and their activities through to June 2024. Each Hub can receive up to $2 million per year (GST exclusive).

The Hubs will support networks of key stakeholders to work together, including primary producers, grower and community groups, industry, researchers, entrepreneurs, education institutions and governments to:

• Provide extension, adoption and commercialisation support;
• Plan co-designed and demand driven drought resilience research, development, extension, adoption and commercialisation (RDEA&C).

Target Regions

The regions targeted are:

• Southern NSW;
• Southern QLD/Northern NSW;
• South-West WA;
• Victoria;
• Top End NT/WA;
• Tropical North Queensland;
• South Australia;
• Tasmania.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applications are being sought from collaborative, multi-disciplinary and multi-institution/organisation consortia. Single organisations may not apply, as a core objective of the program is to bring relevant organisations together to improve delivery of RDEA&C activities.
• The consortium must nominate a lead applicant who will be solely accountable to the department for the delivery of the Hub grant activities. The lead applicant must be an eligible entity. To be eligible you must have an Australian Business Number (ABN) and be one of the following:
  • A Company;
  • A co-operative;
  • An Indigenous corporation;
  • A local government entity;
  • Incorporated association (for example, an incorporated not for profit organisation);
  • An incorporated joint venture between an Australian state/territory government agency and a university or other organisation;
  • A registered higher education provider for the purposes of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (Cth), that is registered in a provider category that permits the use of the word ‘university’;
  • A Trust.

If you are applying as a not for profit organisation, you must demonstrate your not for profit status through one of the following:

• Current Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission’s (ACNC) registration
• Constitutional documents and/or Articles of Association that demonstrate the not for profit character of your organisation.

For more information, visit https://www.communitygrants.gov.au/grants/fdfadoptionandinnovation