Am I eligible to apply?

All applicants must satisfy the following criteria:

1. You must be a food¹ producing business involved in value-adding and processing² or a not-for-profit organisation active in the food production industry
2. Your business must be a business registered for tax purposes in Australia with an Australian Business Number (ABN)
3. Your business must be financially sound, with professionally prepared financial statements demonstrating the ability to fund your share of project costs

Universities and research organisations are not eligible to apply.

Applications will be judged on the benefits they deliver to the regional food industry, as expressed in the merit criteria in these guidelines. Applicant businesses do not have to be located in regional Australia. This recognises that eligible food producing businesses will have supply chains that are inextricably linked with regional businesses and benefits can accrue for regional Australia from projects taking place in metropolitan Australia.

While the Commonwealth will enter into funding agreements with single entities meeting the above criteria, we encourage you to undertake projects in collaborative partnerships with other businesses, such as supply chain partners and research and development providers. If you elect to collaborate, you will be responsible for managing the legal relationship between project partners.

What activities are eligible for funding?

Your proposal should focus on designing and applying new production and processing technologies for application in the regional food processing or producing industry.

This includes processing, packaging and logistics, and/or adoption of technology. Projects must have a commercial focus–funding will be available for implementation and commercialisation of new technologies to a point mutually agreed in the funding agreement.

The activities that the program will fund include:

1. Design of new technologies to proof-of-concept through to implementation and commercialisation to meet a market need

This would involve the creation of new technologies designed to address a real innovation gap in your industry and the implementation of that technology. Technologies could focus on increasing production output, improving efficiency, breakthroughs in food preservation and the utilisation of by-products and waste streams.

The program will not fund full-scale roll-out of the new technology, but may assist in implementing at least one production line.

2. Adoption of technologies, with regional spill-over benefits

While the technology may have been developed overseas or in another region in Australia, you could make the case that the program should assist you in acquiring the technology. To do so, you would have to convincingly make the case that the adoption of the technology represents a significant opportunity for Australia and/or your regional food sector that would not be possible without government assistance.

For successful applications, strict funding conditions will be imposed requiring the dissemination of lessons learned from the implementation of the technology, in order to demonstrate the benefits of the technology to the wider regional food industry and encourage its uptake.

3. The innovative re-design of existing production/processing lines to create efficiencies and boost productivity

No production process operates at 100 per cent efficiency. The solution may not lie in buying new and better technology. Increased productivity can be achieved through the re-design of production processes. You would have to objectively quantify your current production efficiency and your expected gains in efficiency, using accepted industrial measures³, in order to be eligible for funding.

In addition, you must be able to demonstrate that your project is consistent with your business’s strategic goals, as outlined in your business plan. You will need to provide your business plan with your application.

What activities are not eligible for funding?

The program will NOT fund:

• innovation in the process of farming or fishing, such as planting, growing, fertilising, irrigating, harvesting, breeding and genetics, or catching
• projects where the productivity benefits accrue to the applicant business only at the expense of domestic competitors
• the construction of buildings and infrastructure⁴ such as extensions, roads, or fences
• expenditure related to the normal day-to-day operations of a business
• retrospective project related activities (i.e. anything commenced before a Funding Agreement has been signed by the department)
• the development of new product lines, where the project does not involve the development of new technologies or new processes
• promotional activities not related to disseminating information on the benefits of the innovation to the regional/seafood producing industry
• purchase of land
• remuneration and related costs of personnel not directly engaged in project activity
• initial scoping of the market opportunity/innovation potential
• other activities deemed to be contrary to the spirit/intent of the program or outside the Funding Agreement

^{1 Food is defined as any substance, whether processed, semi-processed or raw, that is intended for human consumption and is sold to a consumer for immediate consumption, or with minimal preparation. This includes drink, chewing gum and any substance that has been used in the manufacture, preparation or treatment of ‘food’, but does not include cosmetics or tobacco or substances used only as pharmaceuticals.
2 This means food processors, or farmers and fishers involved in value-adding.
3 For example, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
4 Capital equipment costs and pilot plant facilities may be eligible when part of the project. See ‘Supplementary Information’ for additional guidance.}

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