About Funding

The Smart Water Fund is a Victorian flagship centre for funding and managing collaborative research and innovation in the water sector (including metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria). The Smart Water Fund is an industry led entity and focuses on urban water management.

The fund has two key objectives:

  1. To invest in applied research which delivers knowledge, products or solutions that are valuable to the Victorian water utilities and the customers they serve.
  2. To facilitate knowledge transfer and utilisation of the research outcomes to key beneficiaries.

It is important to recognise that the Fund is a front-end exploration, demonstration and de-risking fund, predominantly serving the strategic needs of the Victorian water utilities. All projects need to demonstrate the ability to deliver both objectives to be considered for funding. Note that the Smart Water Fund is not a commercialisation or a capital/infrastructure support fund.

The Smart Water Fund has two funding streams:

Targeted Investment Stream

Open Innovation Investment Stream
  • Driven through a collborative process between the water utilities
  • The need and scope are generally well defined
  • Funding process can range from choosing a preferred supplier to open tendering
  • Invitations are targeted to appropriately qualified entities

targetedstream
  • Themes/topics of interest are broad
  • Any person or entity meeting the guidelines can submit an expression or interest
  • The selection process is competitive and the criteria changes depending on portfolio needs
  • Expression of interest requests and the selection process occurs at pre-defined times in the year

openstream
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