Innovation hubs set for roll-out under drought fund program

Eight Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs are to be established in regional Australia as part of the Commonwealth’s $5 billion Future Drought Fund.

The hubs will support networks of researchers,
farmers, agricultural businesses and community groups to enhance drought
resilience practice, tools and technology.

Federal Agriculture, Drought and Emergency
Management Minister David Littleproud said $86 million will be invested in the
innovation hubs.

 “[They] will
also break down silos and provide a physical location where researchers and the
community can come together to develop ideas that build drought resilience,” he
said.

Competitive processes to appoint the hubs and a
regional university to lead delivery of this program is expected to open in October
2020.

The hubs will be Southern NSW, S.E.
Queensland/Northern NSW, South-West WA, Victoria, Top End NT/WA, Far-north
Queensland, South Australia, and Tasmania.

In related news, the number of federally funded
officers liaising between drought-affected communities and governments will
rise from 19 to 24.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the
extra funding for the National Drought and North Queensland Flood Response and
Recovery Agency (which administers the RRO network) at last week’s Bush Summit
in Cooma, NSW.

Mr Morrison also announced that competitive grant rounds have opened to identify providers for two of the nine programs being funded under the Future Drought Fund.

The
programs will provide support to regional and rural communities as part of the
broader objectives set out under the Fund’s 2020-24 Drought Resilience Funding
Plan, which is intended to provide continuous funding for future drought
resilience initiatives

Applications close on 25 September 2020, and successful providers are expected to be announced later this year.