Bushfire Technology Pilots Program

Bushfire in rural NSW

The Bushfire Technology Pilots Program enables both existing commercial and new bushfire technologies to be fielded and evaluated by frontline NSW bushfire services.

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Key information

  • Status: Closed
  • Grant amount: Up to $250,000
  • Application opened: 26 October 2022
  • Application closed: 14 December 2022, 5:00 pm

Program objective

The objectives of the BTPP is to enable businesses to:

  • commercialise field-ready technology for bushfire-related applications through the trial or pilot of technology with end-user agencies in NSW
  • improve end-user agencies' awareness of innovation possibilities in bushfire management and operations through exposure to new technology.

The BTPP targets innovative devices/systems that are at a minimum Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6.

The BTTP is providing a total of $6 million in grant funding over four years for field-ready bushfire technology to be trialled or piloted with NSW fire and emergency coordination and response agencies in an operational environment. Round two of the program provides up to $250,000 (excluding GST) per grant application from a total grant pool of up to $2.6 million (excluding GST).

Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis, based on a merit-based assessment by an independent Expert Panel comprised of senior leaders with expertise in bushfire management and operations and venture capital, and end-user NSW government agency support of the application/s. Only applications that are supported by end-user NSW government agencies will be recommended for funding.

Further, the Office of the Chief Scientist & Engineer is partnering with the Minderoo Foundation on the BTPP. There are strong strategic alignments between the Minderoo’s Flood and Fire Initiative and the NSW Bushfire Response R&D Mission. For consenting applicants, the Minderoo Foundation will assess applications at their discretion and may provide additional or separate funding through associated existing programs and/or collaborations that are aligned to their Fire Shield Mission.

This program is funded and administered by Office of the Chief Scientist and Engineer.

Eligibility

Who can apply

The second round of the BTPP is open to eligible entities with technologies that are ready to be trialled or piloted in an operational environment.

Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis after applications are assessed by an independent Expert Panel comprised of senior leaders with expertise in bushfire management, operations, and venture capital. Only applications that are supported by end-user NSW government agencies will be recommended for funding.

Who can’t apply

  • NSW DEIT at its sole discretion, can take other factors into account that may cause a business to be ineligible for support, such as any personnel or business activities that could cause reputational damage or other risk to the NSW Government.
  • NSW DEIT reserves the right to assess the applicant's management, its Directors, Officers and entities or individuals that exercise control over an applicant against a fit and proper persons eligibility criterion.
  • Where an application is identified as not meeting the above eligibility criteria, the application may be set aside from further consideration at the absolute discretion of NSW DEIT.
  • NSW DEIT may seek clarification from any applicant in relation to its application, including seeking further information on the eligibility or assessment criteria.

Types of projects funded under this grant

Grant funding must only be used on activities undertaken within NSW. Proposals that propose spending grant funding on partners, activities, or items outside of NSW will not be eligible (other than the purchase of equipment to bring to NSW).

Funds may be expended on activities to support the delivery of technology in the field, that is, to conduct the trial or pilot as outlined in the Application Form and project budget.

Example projects

Eligible expenditure includes:

  • capital expenditure (for example, to build and provide extra units of the technology)
  • specific professional expertise (for example, a drone pilot, technical specialist, business development or commercialisation expert)
  • training of NSW Government personnel as part of the trial/pilot
  • licence fees incurred as part of the trial/pilot
  • data analysis and/or management costs.

Most recent recipients

All recipients (10)

What your application needs to include

 See a sample 

File

Sample Application Form - Bushfire Technology Pilots Program Round_2 Application (PDF 96.62KB)

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You can also download the complete 

File

Guidelines for Applicants Bushfire Technology Pilots Program (PDF 205.46KB)

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BTPP Applicant Supporting Documents

1

Prepare your application with this checklist

  • Requests for an extension may be considered at OCSE's absolute discretion.
  • Applicants should clearly identify in their application (including attachments) any information that the applicant requests be treated as confidential.
  • All questions in the application form must be answered. If they are not applicable, please indicate.
  • The application must be authorised by at least one of the core participants (i.e.by the head of the organisation or their authorised delegate).
2

Address the eligibility criteria

To be eligible for BTPP support, the organisation/s applying must:

  • Have a current Australian Business Number (ABN).
  • Be one of the following legal entities:
    • a financially viable commercial enterprise based in NSW that is an Australian registered company or that will become a NSW business entity prior into entering legally binding funding agreement with the Department; or an individual who agrees to form such an entity so that NSW DEIT (the Department) can enter into a legally binding funding agreement; or
    • a NSW public research organisation applying through its appropriate technology transfer office or the Chief Executive Officer (or equivalent) of the research organisation that will become a separate entity before entering into a legally binding funding agreement with the Department.
  • Be based in NSW and demonstrate that the project activities will take place in NSW.
  • Seek to test or pilot bushfire technology that is field-ready. The technology must have reached a minimum Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 6. Refer to Appendix A for further detail on TRL. The Expert Panel will assess your TRL against the TRL model used in this program and the information provided in each application.
  • Hold the Intellectual Property or the rights to commercialise the device/system.
3

Address the assessment criteria

  • The application must outline answers to the questions related to the threshold and assessment criterion to enable the application to be assessed. Failure to provide this information may result in the application being set aside from further consideration at DEIT's absolute discretion.
  • As this is a competitive grants process, the assessment will be a comparative assessment of the application against all other eligible applications.
  • The BTTP application form seeks responses to criteria listed in Table 1.
CriteriaDescription
Threshold Criteria 
Feasibility of proposal to meet a need in bushfire management or operations
  • Does the technology have the potential to meet a current NSW Government end-user agency need in relation to bushfire management or operations?
  • Is there an appropriate end-user agency (or agencies) who can work with the applicant on the project?
  • Can the resources, data and environments required in the proposal be made available to enable the project?
Assessment Criteria 
Technical feasibility and benefits to bushfire management and operations in NSW
  • Is the proposed application of the technology technically sound?
  • Is the technology easily scalable?
  • Is it clear how the technology will provide economic, environmental and/or social benefits to NSW?
Commercial viability of technology
  • Does the technology have commercial potential?
Capability of project team
  • Does the project team have sufficient expertise and capability to deliver on the proposal’s objectives?
Budget and financial information
  • Is it clear how the grant funding will be used to conduct the project?
  • Does the applicant have a demonstrated financial need for the funding?
  • The assessment criteria (Table 1) have equal weighting.
  • The responses to these criteria will be used by NSW DEIT to determine whether to recommend funding to the applicant, and how much funding to recommend.
  • NSW DEIT will make recommendations regarding funding allocations to applicants.
  • NSW DEIT may choose not to award or recommend funding under this program.

Start the application

Applications for this grant are available via the SmartyGrants portal.

Apply now

After the application is submitted

Successful applications will be decided by: an independent Expert Panel comprised of senior leaders with expertise in bushfire management, operations, and venture capital.

The Program Committee Working Group, representing NSW Government enduser agencies will review all eligible applications to determine which applications they would support, informed by a review of the applications against the threshold criteria (Table 1) and viewing the video pitch.

Support and contact

If you have questions regarding the BTPP, contact us through: bushfiremission@chiefscientist.nsw.gov.au

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