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NSW Initiates Grants for First Round of Bushfire Technology Trials

Australia's NSW government is offering grants up to $100,000 for local companies to try their bushfire technology in the field under the first round of an R&D mission announced in last year’s state budget. The Bushfire Response R&D Mission was a key recommendation of the New South Wales Inquiry and the government’s action plan.

The first round of the Bushfire Technology Pilots is offering a $1.5 million grant to support pilots and trials of the technology developed by NSW businesses. This round opened in December but was only announced on 14th January 2022 by Minister of Science, Innovation, and Technology Alister Henskens. The applications for this round will close on 7th February 2022.

The trials will include the state’s bushfire and natural hazard disaster management and response agencies using the technology in the fields and providing applicants with facilities, data, and testing environments to validate their work. The pilots will assist fire agencies in evaluating how they can operationalize the technology through workforce capability development and integration with existing systems and procedures.

The $28 million for the mission was revealed in the lead of last year’s budget, from which $7 million is to be released every year for four years, with the mission’s focus heavily on technology.

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