Yes. A team can participate in the program, however, we do require that a single person be nominated as the primary innovator. This person will be expected to attend all of the sessions and is typically the project lead or startup CEO. The primary innovator should be the program applicant, and the application should list all core team members.

We have a very broad interpretation of what constitutes “drought resilience”. We have divided this challenge into 10 areas and examples of technologies that could fit within the broad definition we apply.

• Water: This includes water management and storage; Irrigation and water use, water sources.

• Financial Resilience: This includes alternate revenue streams, insurance and access to capital, new markets, employment, and risk.

• Crops, Horticulture and Planting: This covers crop practices, crop choices, crop information availability, ground cover, animal feed crops and more.

• Livestock: Including animal production, animal health and welfare, animal reproduction, grazing, carrying and stocking rates, and livestock biosecurity.

• Soil: This includes land management, soil health and quality, soil moisture and more.

• Pests and Weeds: This covers anything to do with pest management, weed prevention, and fertilisers.

• Environment: Including environmental ecosystems, environmental sustainability, natural resource management, bushfires and back burning, forecasting and more.

• Community Resilience and Wellbeing: This includes personal and familial wellbeing and mental health, cost of living, community resilience, and social connection.

• Information and Knowledge Sharing: This covers things like drought-specific information, knowledge sharing, decision-making, planning tools and software.

• Supply Chain Management: Including crop yield and quality, cost and price volatility, supply chain and logistic disruptions, market access, waste management, and more.

These areas cover a very wide spectrum of potential innovations across technologies as diverse as biology, hardware, biotech, data and algorithms, IoT and sensors, software applications, and much much more. We encourage you to apply even if you’re not 100% sure your innovation qualifies, and we can respond to you with any more information you might need to include.

We have a broad view of what constitutes innovation in drought resilience. We consider a range of technologies (such as software, hardware, and biologicals) with a focus on things that are novel and defensible. So it is not essential that you have taken formal steps around protecting your intellectual property - and it is not essential that you have (or will one day need) a patent. It might be just as likely that your innovation revolves around trade secrets (which can be the foundation of a venture’s intellectual property). The bottom line is that if you have an emerging technology that is novel and defensible (and originates in Australia), it will certainly qualify as the type of innovation we can support you with.

You must be an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or have your IP (technology/innovation) housed in an incorporated company entity to be eligible to apply. Please note that this requires at least an ACN (not just an ABN). You will need to do your own research to clarify the difference.

There is a narrow exemption to these eligibility in some cases where the main criteria are not satisfied and there is an international innovator or innovation with novel IP and evidence of intent to bring the innovation to Australian farmers. Please contact us if you think this exemption might apply to you.

No, innovators that have participated in other accelerator programs can still be considered for the Drought Resilience Lab.

The short answer is yes. We are proud to be part of a growing ecosystem of organisations that helps advance agtech ventures in Australia. We will judge applicants purely on our selection criteria. If your innovation also qualifies for other programs’ selection criteria, terrific!

We welcome entrepreneurial researchers, early-stage founders, and industry disruptors who want to transform validated prototypes into impactful ventures that contribute to drought-resilience.