Caring for our Country - Open Grants
Do you have a project to protect Australia's unique natural environment and create a sustainable future for our country?
Open Grants is a transitional component of the Australian Government's new $2.25 billion Caring for our Country initiative.
Future opportunities for funding to contribute to the priority outcomes will be included in the annual Caring for our Country Business Plan.
National priorities
Caring for our Country Open Grants funding will provide up to $25 million in 2008-2009. This funding is targeted to the following Caring for our Country priority areas:
- biodiversity and natural icons
- coastal environments and critical aquatic habitats
- sustainable farm practices
Projects that address environmental and sustainable land management outcomes in remote and northern Australia, improvements to the national reserve system or community skills, knowledge and engagement issues can also be addressed within these priority areas.
Who can apply?
Anyone can apply as long as you are a legal entity. For example:
- Regional/Catchment natural resource management bodies
- Non-government incorporated organisations
- Incorporated community, industry and Indigenous groups
- Individuals, trusts or partnerships
- Universities and cooperative research centres
- Businesses
- Commonwealth Government agencies
- State and Territory Government agencies
- Local Government
When is the closing date?
The 2008-2009 funding round closed at 5:00pm AEST on Friday 1 August 2008.
What size are the grants?
Competitive grants will fund projects costing from $80 000 to $400 000.
What can be funded?
During 2008-2009 Caring for our Country will support
- larger scale projects which have the capacity to achieve significant outcomes
- projects that involve consortiums of key interest groups; are multi-regional or multi-jurisdictional and that leverage additional investment from other sources
- projects that target significant outcomes in at least one of the Caring for our Country national priority areas targeted for 2008 -2009
- projects that can be delivered in a timely manner with measurable outcomes by 30 June 2009, but we will also accept projects that can be completed within 12 months
Projects should engage key stakeholders and must demonstrate how the project outcomes will be communicated and promoted to other natural resource management stakeholders.
We encourage you to still apply through this process if you are seeking a smaller amount of funding but have leveraged considerable investment from other sources. For details on the range of activities supported read the fact sheet:
- Open Grants fact sheet (PDF - 345 KB)
- Open Grants 2008-2009: Guidelines for Applicants (PDF - 435 KB)
- Supplementary guidelines - sustainable farm practices fact sheet (PDF - 334 KB)
What is not eligible for funding?
Caring for our Country will not fund proposals
- that will devolve grants to other bodies
- for research and development projects of a general nature which do not address specific Caring for our Country priority areas
- that duplicate work undertaken within the same region(s) by other organisations
- by applicants who have overdue final reports and/or acquittals for previous Australian Government natural heritage trust or national action plan for salinity and water quality funding, including Envirofund and Coastal Catchment Initiatives
- for monitoring and data projects that are not consistent with the Australian Government natural resource management monitoring and evaluation framework
- for facilitator and coordinator projects where the facilitation component is not directed at linking national activities to regional activities or does not play a national leadership role
Contacting us
For further information about the Open Grants contact us.
Email: opengrants@nrm.gov.au
Phone Caring for our Country Open Grants: 1800 065 823
Further information
- Frequently asked questions
- Australian Government Natural Resource Management Monitoring and Evaluation Framework
- Australian Wetlands Database
- Weeds of National Significance
- Nationally threatened plants
- Nationally threatened animals
- Nationally threatened ecological communities
- Coastal acid sulphate soils
- Australian pest animal strategy
- Australian weed strategy
- National cooperative approach to integrated coastal zone management
Other sources of funding
Key
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