AgriFutures’ growAG. is an online platform that showcases Australian agricultural innovations, organisations, and research, investment and commercialisation opportunities online in one easy to use location.
The platform maximises the Research Development Corporations’ (RDCs) research and development (R&D) investment by increasing collaboration and connectivity in the agricultural sector, boosting the quality of R&D that occurs and helping translate R&D efforts into real world impact for producers.
“growAG. makes it easy to find potential expertise, projects, partners or opportunities,” said growAG. Senior Manager Arianna Sippel.
“We have built an extensive network of program managers, researchers, universities, research groups, venture capitalists, startups, scaleups, corporates, investors, producers and agronomists.
“These groups can post to the website and submit and receive enquiries. The growAG. concierge service connects those interested parties together as well as other relevant parties that would be a good fit.”
Since launching in April 2021 this platform has showcased more than 2,500 research projects and more than a hundred commercialisation opportunities. From those first 100 opportunities, 450 connections were made.
For example, research program managers and researchers can find new potential partners and find further investment for a project. Startups, scaleups and corporates looking to invest in commercial opportunities can readily see what research projects are underway.
Organisations or individuals can also post innovation challenges to flag their interest in funding projects around certain areas of research.
“We have seen some really wonderful connections made. The visibility of research and opportunities benefits everyone,” said Sippel.
“The feedback we have received from groups that list on growAG. is that there is a high quality of enquiries, and they receive genuine interest that lead to partnerships or potential partnerships.
“What I find remarkable and which everyone comments on is the breadth of leads on the site. Often through growAG. people are able to find organisations and opportunities in the agricultural ecosystem that they didn’t know existed and wouldn’t have been able to find without the platform.”
The website has seen substantial levels of engagement with over 40,000 users so far. There has been significant uptake within the Australian market as well as internationally. This creates opportunities to not only collaborate across Australia but to scale solutions globally and seek international pathways.
growAG. is a joint initiative by the RDCs and the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE). There are already over 50 research projects on the site led by FWPA.
“There are many relevant opportunities happening within the forestry industry that growAG. showcases to the broader agricultural sector,” said Sippel.
“Conversely, growAG. enables those in the forestry industry to see what everyone else is investing in, who is developing expertise, and what technologies and solutions are already coming down the pipeline that could be further invested in or tweaked to suit the forestry context.”
You can also explore, find and connect with relevant research projects and innovation opportunities from across Australia’s agrifood innovation system at growag.com. And if you have a research project, commercialisation opportunity or an organisation you would like listed on growAG., you can visit growag.com/submit.
To follow recent opportunities you can also follow growAG. on LinkedIn and subscribe to the bi-monthly newsletter here.
