Drought Resilience Lab

Get market-ready in 12 weeks.

The Studio’s Drought Resilience Lab, supported by the Future Drought Fund equips ag innovators with the resources, specialised support, and networks to turn their technologies into impactful ventures.

With funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund, our focus is to improve the drought-resilience of Australian farmers.

We are building the next wave of world-leading companies in drought resilience.

Australia's natural adversity makes us a hotbed for innovation. A future world with longer, more intense periods of drought will be the source pain and hardship for farmers.

But it creates an opportunity for our researchers and industry experts to share their knowledge with the world. Australia can set a new global standard in drought-resilient agriculture.

With new models for commercialising our research, a future generation of agtech startups can take our hard-won expertise to the world.

For innovators who want to transform validated prototypes into impactful ventures.

Entrepreneurial researchers with technologies ready to graduate from the lab to real-world ag applications.

AgTech founders with early-stage prototypes ready to validate and bring to market.

Industry disruptors with game-changing solutions ready to transform agriculture from the inside out.

Build your venture equity-free and unlock future growth opportunities.

Non-Dilutive Participation

Access all Venture Studio elements at no cost and retain full ownership of your venture, ensuring you can focus on growth without sacrificing equity.

Showcase and Beyond

Opportunity for top ventures to present at a final showcase and the possibility of becoming a Ventures-in-Residence with the Studio for up to 12 months.

Cohort 1 Innovator Showcase, Sydney

Hear from our innovators and industry leaders who were at our first ever Innovator Showcase.

Cohort 2 Innovator Showcase, Brisbane

Hear from our innovators about what they were able to achieve in 12 weeks.

Supported by our team of Venture Builders

Ben Lever

Senior Venture Builder

Marcus Agnew

Head of Venture Studio

Justin McMurray

Lead Venture Architect

Natalie King

Operations Lead

Brett Geoghegan

Venture Builder

Anna Tao

Venture Builder

Angela Poe Noronha

Venture Builder

Deon Goosen

Venture Builder

Tom van Gammeren

Venture Builder

Klara Kalocsay

Strategic Communications and Engagement Lead

Alex Veiga

Venture Principal

James Ryall

Venture Builder

Frequently Asked Questions

Program details and benefits

  • Participation is free and non-dilutive, ensuring you can focus on building your venture without giving up equity or paying any fees.

  • None. For the next two years, the Drought Venture Studio is funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund. Due to the nature of this partnership, the Drought Venture Studio is not currently taking equity in new ventures. The investments made into new ventures are all non-dilutive.

  • During the program existing IP ownership will not be affected. For example, the IP associated with your innovation may be owned by a university or other research institute. Throughout the 12 weeks, if applicable, we will support you and the IP owner to understand the extent to which a new venture can access any required IP, such as through a licensing agreement.

Program Eligibility

  • 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.