$1 million in funding released for innovative water projects

The Smart Water Fund has announced that it will make available $1 million in funding to support innovative urban water projects. This will be the fund’s 10th round of funding, with applications opening in mid-October.

Smart Water Fund CEO Christine Cussen said, “The announcement of the next round of funding provides an excellent opportunity for Smart Water Fund to continue to invest in leading-edge research and innovation on behalf of Victoria’s water utilities.”

This round of funding will be open to commercial businesses, research institutions and consulting firms for projects which are able to demonstrate benefits and value to the Smart Water Fund Joint Venture partners. The fund will seek applications in the areas of:

• Resource recovery (eg, energy or mineral recovery and opportunities in carbon sequestration as a result of carbon pricing introductions).
• Innovation in asset planning, construction, maintenance and renewal with the potential to enhance industry productivity or reduce costs.

“It has been some time since the Smart Water Fund has gone to the external market to source best practice innovation outside the utility sector and we remain confident that these new investments will add significant value to Victoria’s urban water utilities and their customers,” said Cussen.

Since starting in 2002, the Smart Water Fund has invested in over 195 projects that have received total funding of approximately $30 million.

Further information on the upcoming round of funding, including guidelines and applications, will be available at www.smartwater.com.au from mid-October. Interested organisations are invited to register their details on the website to receive notification of the opening of the funding round.