Closed Grant Opportunity View - GO7165

The Australian Government through the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (the department) is inviting consortia to apply for grants under the Future Drought Fund Long-term Trials of Drought Resilient Farming Practices Program Round 2 (the Program).

The program will fund innovative and transformational practices that have the potential to build the economic, environmental, and social resilience of Australian farms to drought and climate variability. 

The Program allocates $40.3 million GST exclusive over 6 years for projects commencing in May-June 2024-25 to 2029-30. Applicants can apply for a minimum of $3 million up to a maximum of $8 million GST exclusive. Applications must include a consortium of partners, with a lead organisation nominated as the ‘applicant’. Co-design and farmer involvement is required. The grant is open to eligible agricultural industries defined as cereal and other broadacre crops, horticulture crops and livestock.

Projects will contribute to drought and climate resilience through investigations that test, refine and demonstrate the effectiveness of innovative farming practices, technologies and/or approaches through scientific, evidence-based trials. This evidence-based approach is designed to support and drive adoption by providing farmers with the confidence to apply new techniques on farm. Longer term projects are supported as they are more capable of driving long-term transformational change.

Drought and climate resilience will be increased by projects that enable farmers to:

• be prepared for, and respond to drought
• experiment with the adoption of innovations that build drought and climate resilience
• establishing and strengthen networks between stakeholders to improve knowledge sharing.

To be eligible, you must be an Australian-based organisation, capable of entering into a legally binding and enforceable agreement with the Commonwealth. This includes the following entity types:

• Company
• Cooperative
• Corporate Commonwealth Entity
• Corporate State or Territory Entity
• Incorporated Association
• Indigenous Corporation
• Local Government
• Non-corporate State or Territory Entity
• Non-corporate State or Territory Statutory Authority
• Statutory Entity

Aboriginal Land Council, Aboriginal Land Trust or Torres Strait Islander Land Trust (or equivalent entity) established under Commonwealth, state or territory legislation may apply.

Assessment of applications - Within 12 weeks from the closing date

Approval of outcomes of selection process - Within 16 weeks from the closing date

Notification to applicants - Within 18 weeks from the closing date

Negotiations and award of grant agreements - Within 24 weeks from the closing date

Earliest start date of grant activity - 30 May 2025

End date of grant activity - 30 June 2030.

To apply, you must:

• complete the online application form on GrantConnect 
• provide all the information requested
• address all eligibility criteria and assessment criteria
• include all necessary attachments (see section 7.1)
• submit your application/s to the Community Grants Hub by 9:00 pm AEDT on 19 November 2024.

Please ensure you use the updated Budget Template provided. The auto-populate function (to update the green table) in the original budget template may not be functioning.

Please use:

• Future Drought Fund Long-term Trials of Drought Resilient Farming Practices Round 2 - Questions and Answers - version 5
• Future Drought Fund Long-term Trials of Drought Resilient Farming Practices Round 2 - Final Budget template - version 2

A pre-recorded information video is now available on Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry website.