Funding & Investment

The Smart Water Fund has conducted eight funding rounds to date. In this time approximately 180 projects have received total funding of $25 million toward a total research value of $50 million.

Portfolio Approach

To address the research needs of the Victorian urban water industry (metropolitan and regional), the Smart Water Fund will develop an annual Research Plan in collaboration with its shareholders.

The Research Plan will outline the key research areas that the Fund will invest in, on behalf of the Victorian water industry. The Research Plan promotes a collaborative approach to research investment and ensures that duplication of effort is avoided by each of the shareholders having an active role in the creation of the Plan.

When making research investments the Fund will adopt a portfolio approach of spreading research investment across the short, medium and long term in applied, product/process and new breakthrough research as noted below.

The Fund will direct the majority of its investment towards projects with delivery timelines between 1-5 years. These projects will focus on applied research outcomes that can be incorporated into the short to medium term operations of the water utilities.

The Fund will also invest a portion of its funds in longer term (5-10 year) research projects that focus on breakthrough discoveries and transformational change.

Smart Water Fund Investment Horizons

horizons

Funding is split into two streams:

The Smart Water Fund will retain its two unique funding streams:

Investments under both funding streams are assessed under the Smart Water Fund investment guidelines and criteria.

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