growAG.com launched

A centralised platform that showcases Australia’s agrifood innovation opportunities, success stories, and a comprehensive database of Australia’s current agrifood research projects has today been launched in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) and all of Australia’s 15 Research and Development Corporations (RDCs).

Acting as a gateway to the world, grow^AG. showcases Australia’s world leading agricultural research, unique technologies and commercialisation opportunities on the one, new publicly available platform, growAG.com.

Farmers can now see their levy funded research projects from across the RDC network in one location using filters to search across the different commodities. All the information on the platform is free to access and allows farmers, investors, corporates, startups, researchers, industry, government and universities from Australia and around the world to locate information and opportunities to deliver innovation back to the farm and the food supply-chain.

Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management David Littleproud said the platform would drive investment and commercialisation.

“I’m very excited about the opportunities this platform offers to help ensure farmers have access to the latest technologies,” Minister Littleproud said.

“Innovation will drive productivity, meaning more dollars in the pockets of our farmers and stronger regional communities.”

“A world class agricultural innovation system is an Australian Government priority and a key pillar in support of the industry’s target for a $100 billion sector by 2030.”

One of the collaboration partners, Cotton Research Development Corporation (CRDC), Executive Director Dr Ian Taylor says “With increased transparency, grow^AG. highlights the key people and organisations working within the Australian rural innovation ecosystem and allows more strategic investment in research projects, opportunities to collaborate, and the ability to identify and decrease the risk of duplication in research investment”.

“For many years, the RDCs have been working collaboratively across many projects and on grow^AG. all 15 RDCs come together again. growAG. provides a transparent gateway to our innovation system – a very exciting step forward,” said Dr Taylor.

AusAgritech Australia, Chair, Andrew Coppin, welcomes grow^AG. as a fantastic platform and tool for the Australian agrifood tech sector. Regional and global agrifood tech businesses are looking for innovation partners, pathways and opportunities in Australia and grow^AG. showcases the agrifood innovation and solutions Australia has on offer to the world”.

AgriFutures Australia, Managing Director, John Harvey says it is an important step in Australia’s bid to attract global investment and collaboration to deliver innovation to our farmers.

“Often the Australian market for agricultural innovation is too small to justify the costs of commercialisation. This results in technology remaining ‘on the shelf’, available to no one.’

“Australian researchers are highly innovative. It is time to catapult them into a global market as many of their technologies are highly scalable. This way Australian farmers get the benefit of the technology they have paid for, being commercialised.”

“grow^AG. provides domestic and international audiences with an easy way to find and connect with the research partners they are after.”

grow^AG. works seamlessly alongside evoke^AG.. evoke^AG. is the Asia Pacific premier agrifood tech event with a network of community members who are interested and keen to participate in collaborative thinking to change the future of Australian agriculture for the better. evoke^AG. (evokeag.com) is home to hundreds of resources such as news, case studies, videos, podcasts and a Startup Directory.

grow^AG. is an ongoing collaboration between Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment and all of Australia’s 15 RDC’s to increase opportunities for commercialisation and showcase research and technologies.

Visit growAG.com to begin exploring Australia’s agrifood innovation system.