What is the NRM Drought Resilience Program – Grants?
The NRM (Natural Resource Management) Drought Resilience Program – Grants is a grant opportunity to support organisations, farmer groups and individuals undertake projects that contribute to improved drought resilience of agricultural landscapes.
Background
The Future Drought Fund: Natural Resource Management Drought Resilience Program – Grants is focused on support for experimentation in NRM practices, systems and approaches that go beyond current best practice. This aims to foster innovation and transformational change in the management of Natural Capital to deliver drought resilience in agricultural landscapes.
Through holistic management and adoption of new or existing technology and practices, this program will deliver a range of on-ground outcomes achieving benefits that meet local priorities and contribute to landscape-scale drought resilience.
Program Outcomes
The intended outcomes of the NRM Drought Resilience Program – Grants are:
- NRM is improved in Australian agricultural landscapes in ways that support primary producers’ capacity to prepare for and respond to future droughts and climate change
- Primary producers and other land managers are enabled to experiment with adaptive or transformative NRM practices, systems and approaches that can build drought resilience in agricultural landscapes
- Increased uptake of ”whole-of-system” natural resource management thinking and practices – that is, approaches that acknowledge the linkages between the ecosystem services on which agriculture depends; environmental and economic aspects of drought resilience on farms; and the social drought resilience of communities in agricultural areas
- Networks are established or strengthened between stakeholders who partner and share responsibility for managing natural resources (including public and private land managers), which improves connectedness and diversity of approaches across the landscape
Funding
The Australian Government has announced a total of $10 million available.
- $4 million (GST exclusive) of this is available for smaller projects (between $20,000 to $50,000).
- $6 million of this (GST exclusive) is available for larger projects (between $50,001 to $200,000).
Smaller projects:
- The minimum grant amount is $20,000 (GST exclusive).
- The maximum grant amount is $50,000 (GST exclusive).
Larger projects:
- The minimum grant amount is $50,001 (GST exclusive).
- The maximum grant amount is $200,000 (GST exclusive).
Eligible Projects
To be eligible, your proposed project must also meet all of the following:
- Be in a region within Australia and its territories that has been affected by drought, is being affected by drought or at a significant risk of being affected by drought in the future.
- Contribute to at least two of the four program outcomes
- Focused on delivery of public good benefits associated with improved drought resilience. Where a project also delivers direct private benefit, we will consider whether there is an offsetting contribution from the private beneficiary or other third party in the context of assessing the proposal against criterion 3.
- Project administration costs (for both smaller and larger grants) must not exceed 10 per cent of the total project funding
- Total grant funding sought must be between $20,000 and $200,000 ($20,000 to $50,000 for smaller projects; $50,001 to $200,000 for larger grants) (GST exclusive).
- For both the smaller and larger grants, all activities must be completed by 30 June 2022
- All project activities must be eligible activities
The following project activities are eligible:
- increasing capacity, sharing knowledge and promoting strategies on NRM skills and techniques (such as managing groundcover, soil health and structure, water, biodiversity etc.) with a focus on delivering drought resilience
- implementing and/or showcasing successful NRM methods that improve management of Natural Capital to deliver drought resilience in agricultural landscapes
- establishing demonstrations or sites that enable experimentation and/or implementation of new practices (for example, introduction of new practices related to rotational grazing, regenerative agriculture (crops or livestock), weed and feral pest management actions) that support
transformational change10 in the management of Natural Capital to deliver drought resilience in agricultural landscapes - implementing the use of or establishing ecosystem services from Natural Capital as a specific land use activity.
Eligible Applicants
To be eligible to apply for the NRM Drought Resilience Program – Grants, you must be an individual, farming group or organisation based in Australia and capable of entering into a legally binding and enforceable agreement with the Commonwealth. This includes the following entity types:
- Commonwealth Company
- Company
- Cooperative
- Corporate Commonwealth Entity
- Corporate State or Territory Entity
- Incorporated Association
- Indigenous Corporation
- International Entity
- Local Government
- Non-corporate State or Territory Entity
- Non-corporate State or Territory Statutory Authority
- Partnership
- Person
- Sole Trader
- Statutory Entity
- Trustee on behalf of a Trust
Applications from consortia are eligible, as long as you have a lead applicant who is solely accountable to the Commonwealth for the delivery of grant activities and who is an eligible entity as per the list above. Eligible organisations can form a consortium with ineligible organisations.
You must meet the following additional eligibility requirements before you apply:
- have an Australian Business Number (ABN)
- be registered for the purposes of GST
- have an account with an Australian financial institution
- for individuals, be an Australian citizen or a permanent resident of Australia
- for international entities, be registered with ASIC to carry on business in Australia.
If you do not meet these additional requirements you will not be eligible.
Timing
Applications close 30 October 2020.
