Agribusiness Innovation Grant - Inquiry less than $30,000

Agribusiness Innovation Grant - Inquiry less than $30,000

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Agricultural and Marketing Research and Development Trust (AGMARDT)
Amount: Up to NZ $200,000
Last Updated: August 04, 2025

Summary

The Agribusiness Innovation Grant offers funding up to $30,000 to support innovative projects in the agribusiness sector. This initiative encourages transformative ideas that enhance value chains in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. Applicants can pursue groundbreaking concepts without needing co-funding, aiming to accelerate innovation and foster collaboration. The program seeks to facilitate the development of ideas to attract additional investment and ensure the growth of New Zealand's agribusiness landscape.

Overview

NOTE: The 2025–26 grant rounds are yet to be determined. We are refreshing our organisational strategy, which may affect future grant criteria or processes. For these reasons, our applications portal and grant chats are closed until further notice. Objective The objective of this programme is to encourage and support industry sectors and businesses to develop and implement innovative solutions to assist with transformational change within agribusiness value chains, with particular focus on the agricultural, horticultural and forestry sectors. Agribusiness Innovation Grants The Agribusiness Innovation Grant provide an opportunity for applicants to: Pursue ‘on the edge’ ideas that can transform a business or industry.Accelerate innovation and respond quickly to opportunities that are driven by new ideas or insight arising from the marketplace.Facilitate and promote collaborative industry innovation across the food & fibres sector.Gain a better understanding of world class best practices Develop and evaluate innovative ideas to a stage where they can attract other investment for further development through to commercialisation. AIGs project cost less than $30k Seed funding grants for projects with total cost up to $30,000 (incl.GST) are available to applicants, without co-funding, for activities such as validation, prototyping, demonstration or investigation purposes.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. No co-funding is required.To be eligible for funding, applicants must:Be involved in agribusiness and/or be a research/technology provider and involved in the New Zealand agricultural, horticultural and forestry sectorsclearly demonstrate that the project innovation/idea can transform a business or industryidentify how AGMARDT funding can assist in speeding up innovation to respond quickly to opportunities arising from the marketplaceidentify what difference AGMARDT’s funding can make to the project (i.e. likelihood of the project proceeding or proceeding more quickly)build linkages and capability between innovative New Zealand researchers, producers, processors and marketers; andbe committed to, where possible, retaining the value and benefits arising from the project within New Zealand.

Ineligibility

What should I avoid in my application / what doesn’t AGMARDT fund?Capital expenditure (CAPEX) funding e.g. buildings, equipment, web-based products and services, etcOperational funding unless someone is being paid to develop curriculum or commissioned to do specialised workRetrospective funding (costs incurred before the project is approved by the board of trustees)Focus on the here / now (incremental gains) with no link to the long-term futureMarketing / branding / comms unless it’s part of a larger innovation programmeAnything that can be perceived as ‘business as usual’ (BAU)Projects outside the agribusiness sectorDuplicating existing work / reinventing the wheelDuplication of funding assistance (note: applicants must disclose all third-party funding)