2008/2009 Sustainable Farming Fund: Application Process, Guidelines and Criteria
Background
The purpose of the MAF Sustainable Farming Fund (SFF) is to improve the financial and environmental performance of New Zealand’s productive land-based sectors.
It does this by supporting projects that are:
• based around solving problems, or taking up opportunities, related to sustainable resource use; and
• defined and driven by a farmer, grower or forester-led “Community of Interest” — groups of stakeholders drawn together by the common problem(s) or opportunity.
Groups wishing to apply for funding from the SFF should follow these Guidelines when completing the Application Form.
Note: For more information about the SFF, and the nature of projects supported, applicants should familiarise themselves with material on the SFF website: www.maf.govt.nz/sff.
Groups can apply for two types of projects, each lasting from one to three years:
1. Small projects of $20,000 (incl. GST) or less
This category of funding is aimed at proposals from smaller industries, new or emerging crops, groups wishing to undertake initial scoping studies before embarking on larger projects, or projects with a small regional or local focus. It is also suited to supporting one-off knowledge sharing and extension initiatives.
Applications go through a one phase process using the Application Form.
2. Projects between $20,000 and $200,000 (incl. GST) per annum
Larger projects go through a two phase assessment process. Phase I uses the same Application Form as for small projects. These projects are short-listed through the Phase I process, and are then invited to submit a more detailed Phase II proposal.
Note: The maximum SFF grant available is $600,000 (i.e., $200,000 over three years).
Timeframes
The following are important dates and timeframes for the SFF assessment process:
11 February 2008 |
• Deadline for receipt of Phase I applications |
Early April 2008 |
• Small projects notified of funding decisions • Phase I shortlist invited to submit Phase II applications |
5 May 2008 |
• Deadline for receipt of Phase II applications |
Late June 2008 |
• Phase II applicants notified of final decisions |
General Fund, Assessment and Project Management Information
General Fund Information
SFF projects contribute to the economic, social and environmental viability of farmers, growers, foresters and their wider rural communities.
Projects can include, but are not restricted to:
• Applied research and development
• Demonstration projects.
• Information, knowledge and technology transfer.
• Technical investigations supporting improved use and allocation of water.
• Identifying barriers to, and options for, improved land use and management.
• Improving decision support.
• Adding value and exploring market opportunities.
Activities and expenditure that are usually1 not appropriate for SFF support includes:
• Projects involving unsustainable land management or environmental practices.
• Projects primarily benefiting an individual or single business/farming unit (including the funding of whole farm plans).
• Activities more appropriately funded by other funding bodies or organisations.
• Long-term on-going costs of an organisation or trial/project.
• Large capital expenditure.
• Retrospective costs.
• Local or central government fees or charges.
• Conservation, mining or marine farming projects.
• Projects from applicants not resident in New Zealand for tax purposes.
• Participation in statutory processes, litigation, or resource inventory work.
General Assessment Information
The assessment process will primarily be based on the information provided in the application form. Applications will be assessed by panels comprised of external experts and MAF staff. Rankings and commentary from sectoral organisations may also be sought by the SFF and provided as an input into this assessment process.
The resulting panel recommendations will become the basis for funding decisions and/or inviting applicants to submit a more detailed Phase II proposal. The Director General of MAF (or his designate) will make final funding decisions on behalf of MAF.
Note: The Minister of Agriculture & Forestry is not involved in the assessment process.
When considering applying to the SFF, prospective applicants should note the following:
Unsuccessful Applications — The SFF project selection process is highly competitive (3–4 x oversubscribed), based on a subjective assessment of merit, and limited by the funds available. Often well regarded proposals are unsuccessful (or successful at reduced funding). This is often because the assessment panel has concluded:
• That the project is of lower merit or priority relative to others received; or
• The area is adequately covered elsewhere in the SFF’s existing project portfolio.
Confidentiality — Information in project applications will usually be limited to the SFF team, other MAF staff and external SFF assessors (including other funders or pan industry bodies whose input is sought). However, from time-to-time the SFF may also make application information available to other parties (including other applicants) — for example in a situation where two or more applications are similar and the SFF wishes to broker coordinated or amalgamated projects.
If any part of a project is considered by the applicant as confidential, this request must be made directly in writing, under separate cover from the application, to the SFF Manager at the time of submission. The request should specify the party(s) the applicant wishes not to view the application and the reason2.
Intellectual Property — MAF will own3 all intellectual property developed, discovered or created during the course of undertaking SFF funded projects including (but not limited to) any copyright in final reports and documents. However, in recognition of the public good objectives of the fund, the SFF’s default policy with respect to intellectual property is to grant a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to any person or body within New Zealand, to use, copy and distribute any intellectual property developed, discovered or created during the course the project.
To this end, the Applicant Group must make any such intellectual property available on request, and at no charge (except for such reasonable costs as may be approved in writing by MAF).
Note: If there is a compelling reason to restrict IP ownership or access (i.e., to provide exclusivity to the applicant Group or a third party), the applicant should discuss this situation with the SFF Manager at contracting, or as soon as the situation is recognised.
General Project Management Information
If a project is successful, the applicants will need to commit to the following contractual obligations. Failure to do so may result in the withdrawal of funding support:
SFF Project Management — The SFF’s financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June. The following accounting and reporting requirements apply to grants made by the SFF:
a. The grantee will provide written Progress Reports and Requests for Payments (usually up to three times per year) according to the SFF’s reporting schedule.
b. Claims for payments will be lodged as Requests for Payments (in a format approved or supplied by the SFF) and certified correct by the project’s financial manager (who must not be the project manager).
c. Note: Proof of expenditure (invoices, etc.) must be available for Performance Validation and Audit but need not be submitted with a claim.
d. Claims for payments must be supported by Progress Reports (in a format approved or supplied by the SFF) lodged by the project manager.
e. A selection of projects will be subject to Performance Validation and Audit with respect to both financial management and milestone progress achievement(s).
f. The Grantee must keep proper accounts for Performance Validation and Audit purposes. The SFF may ask for a copy of accounts to be supplied with any progress payment request.
g. Final payment of up to 15% of the total grant may be withheld until the SFF receives a satisfactory final report of achievements and accounts.
MAF Publicity — MAF reserves the right to use information regarding grant funded projects for publicity purposes.
Acknowledgement of Funding — The Sustainable Farming Fund must be acknowledged as a source of funding in all publications and publicity regarding grant funded projects. MAF may specify the form and content of such acknowledgement.
Assessment Criteria
All applications will be assessed against the following criteria:
Potential Impact — An assessment of the overall financial, environmental and social benefits that would stem from a successful project in relation to the Community of Interest involved. This will include considering the following:
• Scale of the problem or opportunity being addressed — including, where appropriate, consideration of alignment to wider industry strategies or priorities.
• Uptake — the likely effectiveness of the project’s proposed knowledge sharing/extension activities (i.e., how well and widely the new knowledge, practice or technology developed will be disseminated, adopted and implemented).
User Commitment — An assessment of the Community of Interest’s (and other relevant stakeholders’) commitment to, and engagement in, the project. This will include considering the following:
• Composition and roles/functions of the Project Team.
• Financial and in-kind commitments being made to the project.
Ability to Deliver — An assessment of the technical and project management skills and capabilities being brought to bear on the project.
Value for Money — An assessment of the overall value for money based on the cost of the project and the potential benefits it might deliver.
Final investment recommendations also take into account consideration of:
Overall Portfolio Balance — An assessment of the balance across sectors, regions and outcomes (including consideration of existing SFF, and other funders, investments).
Other Factors — Where relevant, issues such as timeliness and innovativeness of approach will be factored into the overall assessment and ranking process.
Note: The application form will be the primary basis for assessment. However, MAF retains the right to use other information it deems relevant to assist in the assessment process. This includes seeking input from sector organisations and other funders.
Application Form – Completion Guidelines
General Submission Notes
• Note that only applications submitted electronically, and on time, will be accepted.
• All applicants will receive an automatic acknowledgement of their submission by return e-mail. If you do not receive a response please contact the SFF immediately.
• Headings and numbering in these Guidelines relate to those on the Application Form.
• Completed forms should not exceed the space available. Reducing font size and removing paragraph breaks makes proposals difficult to read, and are not received favourably by assessors.
• Applicants should provide clear and succinct descriptions of their projects and use non-scientific language where possible.
• Apart from project costings for small projects, no additional appendices will be considered (unless specifically requested by the SFF).
1. Project Title
Provide a short (<10 words) and meaningful title for the project.
2. Applicant Group
Name the group submitting the application on behalf of the Community of Interest. This is often (but not always) the entity with which the SFF will contract successful projects.
Note: Applications may be submitted directly by the Community of Interest or by an agent (e.g., a closely allied organisation or individual).
3. Community of Interest
‘Communities of Interest’ are groups of people, organisations, or sectors drawn together by a shared problem or opportunity. They will be the primary beneficiaries of a project’s results and therefore should be directly targeted by the extension activities within the project (see Section 8).
Name the Community of Interest and briefly describe:
• What stakeholders it represents;
• The group’s purpose; and
• How and when the group was formed.
Note: If the Community of Interest is not yet organised into a named entity, please ensure the community’s “leaders” are listed in Section 4.
4. Project Team Composition
The project manager is the person responsible for delivering the project results. They are usually, but not always, the SFF contact person for the project.
List other individuals who will play an active leadership role in the project. The number of individuals list will depend on the size and nature of the project. The objective is to demonstrate that there is real community partnership and engagement.
5. Contact Details
Any contact from the SFF during the application process will be directed via this person. The named contact must have sufficient knowledge about the application to be able to answer any queries, and be contactable on the given daytime phone number or e-mail.
6. Problem/Opportunity Description
The problem and/or opportunity identified by the Community of Interest should be clearly described — i.e., what is the gap that the project is seeking to fill?
This section should describe the magnitude or importance of the issue. Wherever possible, try to quantify/size the issue (e.g., number of hectares at risk or affected; % or $$ production losses; potential market size; etc).
This section should also profile any critical timeliness issues (e.g., urgency to coincide with respect to wider factors or activities outside of the project).
7. SFF $$ Requested and Start Date
Record the SFF amount requested for each year as well as the total requested SFF funding. All figures must be GST inclusive. Also note the project’s expected start date.
8. Project Design and Delivery
This section should succinctly describe what your project is actually going to do to solve the problem and/or take advantage of the opportunity identified. It should cover:
• Project Design — Provide an outline of the experimental or investigatory approach to be taken (e.g., trials to be established, research to be undertaken, interviews to be completed, etc). Also describe how the Project Team or Community of Interest will help monitor progress and steer direction.
• Knowledge Sharing & Extension — Describe how new information or knowledge generated will be communicated to the Community of Interest, and, where appropriate, to wider interested stakeholders.
• Ability to Deliver — Demonstrate that the project has access to the necessary technical and project management skills to deliver on its intentions. Note the name of the individual or organisation who will provide any specialist (e.g., technical) skills required, or else outline how such skills will be sourced.
9. Previous Work
Clearly specify previous directly relevant work that may have been undertaken either in New Zealand or overseas, and either by the applicant group or others. Describe how this project will build on this existing knowledge or practice base. If applicable, outline how the proposed approach is likely to succeed where previous attempts may have not. Alternatively, if the work proposed is completely new, please state that this is the case.
Note: This section should not be used to provide a record of past achievements of the applicant group or technical provider unless they directly relate to this proposal.
10. Milestones
Note: Only small projects (less than $20,000) complete this section in full. Projects over $20,000 need only supply higher-level milestone descriptors at this stage (more detailed milestone information will be sought at Phase II for short-listed projects).
Milestones are major activities, stages or outputs of a project that are key to achieving the project’s overall objectives. The milestone table will become the main basis for contracting projects objectives, so must include sufficient detail to enable the SFF team, or its agents, to monitor project progress and substantiate payments.
Milestones should be specific, measurable, achievement focused and time bound.
Description — Describe the major milestones for your project. These should reflect the activities and outputs described in Section 8 (Project Design and Delivery).
Milestones should be measurable (or otherwise auditable) and have an achievement-focus (e.g., Establish trial sites in….; Complete laboratory analysis of resistance and publish findings in industry publication…; Host field day for at least ## farmers in…).
Note:
• All SFF projects must provide a final summary report upon completion. This is represented as Milestone X — Final Report in the table.
• Final payment of up to 15% of the total grant may be withheld until the SFF receives a satisfactory final report of achievements and accounts.
Due Date — For each milestone please provide a planned completion date.
Estimated Costs — Provide an estimated cost for completing each milestone.
Note: SFF projects involve co-funding from industry or community partners. This co-funding may support discrete areas of activities (i.e., ‘standalone’ milestones) or may be used to support all project activities on a parallel/pro-rata basis alongside SFF funds. The milestone table should illustrate how this co-funding is being used.
11. Project Funding
Applicants are required to complete this table4 that describes where all the project’s funds will come from. All figures provided should be GST inclusive.
Note: Small projects (those requesting $20,000 or less) must also provide a detailed breakdown of the project costings represented in this table (cash and in-kind) as an appendix to the completed application form.
Non-SFF Contributions — The maximum grant available from the SFF and other Central Government funding sources is 80% of the project value. However, successful projects from previous funding rounds generally have a non-SFF component (cash and in-kind) of more than 50% of the total project.
Factors such as the size and/or maturity of the sector and nature of the project will impact on what is deemed to be an appropriate level of commitment from the Community of Interest. Projects that receive realistic cash contributions from their Community of Interest, or other parties, relative to their requested SFF investment, will make a stronger case for selection.
Please provide the name(s) and amount(s) of contributions from other sources (incl. local government, private funds, trusts). Space on the form is limited, so contributions can be amalgamated into headings5 (e.g., “from private trusts”, “from farmer group”).
Status of Cash Contributions — Please complete the table so assessors can see at what stage the project team is at in securing cash contributions. SFF assessors appreciate that some co-funders are not able to commit funding before the submission date of these applications. However, downstream project approval and contracting will be contingent upon co-funding being secured to the satisfaction of the SFF.
In-kind contributions — It is important that assessors can review/substantiate the in-kind proportion of your budget. Details of in-kind contributions should be included here, although as space on the form is limited, they may be amalgamated into headings6. An example of how applicants can calculate this information can be found in Annex 1 of these guidelines.
12. Application Confirmation & Submission
A duly authorised agent of the Community of Interest or Applicant Group must submit the application electronically to sff@maf.govt.nz by Monday 11 February 2008.
Important Submission Notes:
• Applications received after this date will not be considered.
• Put your project title in the ‘subject’ line of your submission e-mail.
• Hardcopies are not required. Only electronic submissions will be accepted.
• By submitting the application, the agent is undertaking that the information provided is true and correct. The applicant is also acknowledging that the assessment process is both relative and subjective, and therefore agrees to accept MAF’s authority as the final decision-maker.
Contact for Enquiries
Process Coordinator
Sustainable Farming Fund
Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
Phone: 0800 100 087
Email:
amanda.hall@maf.govt.nz
Annex 1: Valuing and Specifying “In-Kind” (Non-Cash) Project Contributions
For a contribution to count as “in-kind”, the contributor should incur actual and real costs resulting from being directly involved in the project. This does not include any stand-down time of equipment or laboratories or the cost of personnel and/or equipment undertaking activities that form part of their normal day-to-day duties (i.e., doing something that would be done anyway, but that also forms part of the project, like ploughing a field and sowing a normal crop, part of which then becomes a trial plot.)
For in-kind personnel costings, reasonable commercial rates should be used as a guide. If there are no commercial rates available, please use the following guidance:
Personnel — Personnel should be valued at rates that allow for overheads, administrative costs and local travel expenses, which form part of the work done by an individual. These expenses cannot be claimed separately. Personnel rates are:
Rate A: $75 per hour for technical, scientific expertise or professional advice (council officers, engineers, accountants, etc.);
Rate B: $25/hr for general labour, administration and those not covered by Rate A.
Project support costs — These should be valued at the lower of actual cost or market value (e.g., cost of hire) and are restricted to the following costs:
Meeting or workshop costs, such as room or hall hire and catering; and
The provision and use, in a directly beneficial and necessary way, of particular capital equipment or facilities — such as machinery and laboratories. Where these are necessary, their assessed value must be based on actual costs (excluding profit and capital charges) or an equivalent “contracted in” service, whichever is the lower cost.
Example of “In-Kind” Budget Specification
(1) Widget Makers of NZ
In-kind Costs |
FY1 |
FY2 |
FY3 |
Total |
Personnel, technical @ $75/hr |
8,400 |
8,400 |
3,000 |
19,800 |
Personnel, admin/labour @ $25/hr |
800 |
800 |
800 |
2,400 |
Travel & Accommodation |
1,200 |
1,200 |
1,080 |
3,480 |
Dissemination Costs (CD distribution) |
1,080 |
1,080 | ||
Sub-Total In-Kind Costs (includes GST) |
10,400 |
10,400 |
5,960 |
26,760 |
(2) MYOB Discussion Group
In-kind Costs |
FY1 |
FY2 |
FY3 |
Total |
Personnel, technical @ $75/hr |
14,400 |
5,625 |
9,375 |
29,400 |
Personnel, admin/labour @ $25/hr |
1,800 |
425 |
250 |
2,475 |
Tractor Time |
2,300 |
1,250 |
3,500 |
7,050 |
Seed |
900 |
900 |
1,800 | |
Dissemination Costs (workshops) |
600 |
600 | ||
Sub-Total In-Kind Costs (includes GST) |
19,400 |
8,200 |
13,725 |
41,325 |
(3) Tekapo University
In-kind Costs |
FY1 |
FY2 |
FY3 |
Total |
Personnel, technical @ $75/hr |
3,750 |
1,350 |
3,750 |
8,850 |
Personnel, admin/labour @ $25/hr |
875 |
450 |
100 |
1,425 |
Travel & Accommodation |
700 |
350 |
1,200 |
2,250 |
Sub-Total In-Kind Costs (includes GST) |
5,325 |
2,150 |
5,050 |
12,525 |
1 SFF considers the eligibility of applications on a project-by-project basis. Potential applicants are encouraged to discuss their project ideas with the SFF if they are at all unsure of their eligibility status.
2 As a Government agency, MAF is required to supply all information it holds in compliance with the Official Information Act.
3 Note that this is a change from earlier SFF rounds where the Grantee or Applicant Group owned any IP. The change provides greater flexibility to MAF to ensure the IP is used to maximise benefits for New Zealand land-users. It does not alter the SFF’s fundamental/default policy of making SFF information available as widely as possible within New Zealand’s primary industries.
4 The Project Funding table is an Excel spreadsheet. To enter figures double click on the table. When you have finished entering the figures, click outside of the table to finish completing the form.
5 SFF may request specific cash contribution details from applicants later in the assessment process.
6 SFF may request specific in-kind contribution details from applicants later in the assessment process.
Contact for Enquiries
Fund Administrator
Sustainable Farming Fund
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
Tel: 0800 100 087
Fax: 04 894 0741
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