The National Agriculture Traceability Regulatory Technology (RegTech) Research and Insights Grant, $50k to $500k, will provide opportunities for successful applicants to make further improvements to agricultural traceability consistent, and contribute to the development of innovative and practicable proposals to increase the use of RegTech along agricultural supply chains. Research and insights will demonstrate how to leverage RegTech to enhance agricultural traceability reforms, and support growth of the agricultural sector.

Deadlines and Timings

Applications close on 14 Dec 2022 (ACT local time).

Assessment of applications: within 10 weeks from the closing date

Approval of outcomes of selection process: within 13 weeks from the closing date

Notification to unsuccessful applicants: within 14 weeks from the closing date

Negotiations and award of grant agreements: within 22 weeks from the closing date

Earliest start date of grant activity: April 2023

End date of grant activity or agreement: 30 June 2025

Overview and Grant Amount

Projects to be considered under this grant program should strengthen partnerships across industry, scientific organisations; cooperative research centres; state, territory or local governments; corporate Commonwealth entities; universities; or, public and private research organisations to better ensure any solutions proposed will have clear and ongoing benefits for Australian agriculture. The objectives of this grant opportunity are to:

1. Identify a range of existing and potential innovative RegTech traceability applications and developments that are capable of providing standardisable solutions for streamlining compliance across multiple agricultural sectors and commodities and along supply chains.
2. Facilitate uptake of fit-for-purpose, cost-effective and interoperable digital traceability systems, to assist in increasing regulatory efficiency and reducing the administrative and compliance burdens along the supply chain and across different products and commodity classes.

The grant opportunity will run from April 2023 to June 2025 with the following grant amounts:

• minimum grant amount is $50,000 GST exclusive
• maximum grant amount is $500,000 GST exclusive

Eligibility and Criteria

To be eligible you must:

• have an Australian Business Number (ABN) or be willing to obtain one
• be registered for the purposes of GST, or be willing to become registered
• be a permanent resident of Australia or have a place of business in Australia
• have an account with an Australian financial institution

To be eligible you must also be one of the following legal entity types:

• Indigenous corporation
• Company
• Corporate commonwealth entity
• Non-corporate commonwealth entity
• Non-corporate commonwealth statutory authority
• Corporate state or territory entity
• Non-corporate state or territory entity completed all contractual obligations under prior rounds of the program (if applicable)
• Non-corporate State or Territory Statutory Authority
• Local government entity
• Cooperative
• Incorporated association
• Sole trader
• Statutory entity

If you are applying as a trustee on behalf of a trust, the trustee must have an eligible entity type as listed above.

Eligible Activities

To be eligible your grant activity must address the program objectives and at least one of the grant program outcomes:

OUTCOME 1: Investigation of how RegTech (including but not limited to rules as code) can assist in streamlining agricultural compliance obligations. This could include:

• consideration of potential RegTech applications to certification requirements
• an assessment of rules, regulations and other requirements relevant to agricultural traceability with the potential for application to RegTech pilots
• review of domestic and international RegTech initiatives and their applicability to agricultural traceability in Australia

OUTCOME 2: Feasibility assessments of traceability RegTech systems (including but not limited to rules as code). This could include:

• a cooperative or collaborative feasibility study, and/or cost/benefit analysis of options of the use of RegTech to support traceability in Australian agricultural industry sectors and along agricultural supply chains
• assessing mechanisms and incentives for adoption of interoperable, digitally mature traceability systems, including how to apportion costs and benefits equitably along the agriculture supply chain
• undertaking a technological maturity assessment of and with agricultural sector/s and development of a proposal identifying where the ‘RegTech baseline’ should be for the agriculture sector including an explanation of why and how to get there.

OUTCOME 3: Identification and assessment of standardisable features of traceability RegTech applications, devices and platforms that can be applied across agricultural industries, supply chains and commodities to increase value and expand export market access. This could include:

• analysis of traceability technology use by different industry groups and their suitability to agricultural supply chains
• assessing different models of RegTech traceability applications including data storage and cyber security issues
• identifying two-way producer-consumer information flows to maximise value of using traceability RegTech systems

Eligible Expenditure

You can only spend the grant on eligible expenditure you have incurred on agreed grant activities.

• Eligible expenditure items are reasonable costs associated with the delivery of the activity, for example, salaries and on-costs of those directly involved and domestic travel directly associated with the project.
• Guidelines on eligible and ineligible expenditure may be updated from time to time. If your application is successful, the version in place when you submitted your application applies to your grant activity.
• Not all expenditure on your grant activity may be eligible for grant funding. The decision maker (the Minister or their delegate) makes the final decision on what is eligible expenditure.

You must incur the expenditure on your grant activities between the start date and end or completion date for your grant activity for it to be eligible. If your application is successful, you may be asked to verify project costs that you provided in your application. You may need to provide evidence such as quotes for major costs.

On the other hand, the following items are considered ineligible expenditure:

• purchase of land
• major capital expenditure
• the covering of retrospective costs
• costs incurred in the preparation of a grant application or related documentation
• subsidy of general ongoing administration of an organisation such as electricity, phone and rent
• major construction/capital works
• core business expenses not directly related to carrying out the project, including administrative, overhead and infrastructure costs, staff salaries and relocation costs, international travel, or living expenses
• protecting or patenting intellectual property
• establishing new commercial ventures (that is, the set-up costs associated with a new commercial venture)
• overseas travel
• activities for which other Commonwealth, state, territory or local government bodies have primary responsibility

Your application for this grant funding will be disqualified if you receive funding from another government source for the same purpose.

For more information, interested parties are encouraged to read the program guidelines sand FAQ et by the funding grant. Submissions may be lodged through their online portal.

Expert Assistance

We have 14 years of experience preparing EMDG claims and can assist in making sure you receive your maximum rebate.

Working with us means you get the maximum grant with minimum risk and effort. Our expertise includes R&D Tax Incentive registration and tax schedules, Export Grants, Capital Expenditure and Infrastructure Grants.

Get in touch with us and let’s discuss this more in detail.

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