2007/08 Sustainable Farming Fund Application Process, Guidelines and Criteria

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 “Community of Interest” — groups of stakeholders drawn together by these problems or opportunities.

Groups wishing to apply for funding from the SFF should follow these Guidelines when completing the associated Application Form [141K]. 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 (maximum total grant of up to $20,000 incl. GST)

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 transfer initiatives.

Applications go through a one stage process using the Application Form.

2.  Projects greater than $20,000 (incl. GST)

Larger projects go through a two phase application process. Phase I uses the same Application Form as for smaller projects. The maximum SFF grant is $200,000 per year.

Timeframes

The following are important dates and timeframes for the SFF assessment process:

  • 12 February 2007: deadline for receipt of both Small Projects and Phase I application of larger SFF Projects
  • Early April 2007: Phase I shortlist invited to submit Phase II applications
  • 7 May 2007: deadline for receipt of Phase II applications
  • Late June 2007: applicants notified of final decisions.

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:

  • adding value and making market connections;
  • demonstration projects;
  • information/technology transfer;
  • identifying barriers to, and options for, improved land use and management;
  • technical investigations supporting better use and allocation of water
  • improving decision support.

Activities and expenditure not appropriate for SFF support include:

  • capital expenditure;
  • long-term on-going costs of an organisation or trial / project;
  • retrospective costs;
  • activities more appropriately funded by other funding bodies or organisations;
  • local or central government fees or charges;
  • conservation, mining or marine farming projects;
  • projects benefiting an individual or individual business;
  • rojects from applicants who are 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 by the applicant in the application form. Applications will be assessed by panels comprised of MAF and external experts. 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 from recommending funding and/or inviting applicants to submit a more detailed Phase II proposal. The Director General of MAF will make final funding decisions on behalf of MAF. The Minister for Agriculture and Forestry is not involved in this decision-making process.

In 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. The main reason for proposals being unsuccessful (or successful at a reduced rate of funding) will be that the assessment panel considered the proposal to be of a lower relative priority to those projects recommended for funding.

Confidentiality — Information in project applications will generally be limited to the SFF management, MAF staff and external SFF assessors (including other funders or pan industry bodies whose input is sought). 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 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 reason1.

Intellectual Property — MAF will own2 all intellectual property developed, discovered or created during the course of undertaking SFF funded projects including (but not limited to) any copyright in the Final Report. 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 (i.e., to provide exclusivity to the applicant Group or a third party), the Applicant Group should discuss this situation with the SFF Manager at contracting, or as soon as the situation is recognised.

General Project Management Information

If your project is successful, the project team will need to commit to the following obligations:

MAF Publicity — MAF reserves the right to use information regarding grant funded projects for reasonable 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).

SFF Project Management — The following accounting and reporting requirements and procedures will apply to grants made by the SFF:

  1. The grantee will provide written progress reports and requests for payments according to the SFF reporting schedule.
  2. Claims for payments will be lodged (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). Proof of expenditure (invoices, etc.) must be available for Performance Validation and Audit but need not be submitted with a claim.
  3. Claims for payments will be supported by progress reports lodged (in a format approved or supplied by the SFF) by the project manager.
  4. A sample of projects will be subject to Performance Validation and Audit with respect to both financial management and progress achievement(s).
  5. 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.
  6. Final payment (or 15% of the total grant, whichever is lesser) may be withheld until the SFF receives a final report of achievements and accounts.

Applications will be assessed on the basis of the following criteria:

Potential Impact — An assessment of the overall financial, environmental and social benefits that would stem from a successful project. 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.
  • Likely success of the knowledge transfer/extension activities proposed within the project — 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.

Overall Portfolio — An assessment of the balance across sectors, regions and outcomes. This will include consideration of existing SFF project investments, and, where relevant, those of other funders.

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.

General Submission Notes

  • Note that only applications submitted electronically will be accepted.
  • All applications will be acknowledged within two weeks of receipt. If you do not receive an acknowledgement please contact the SFF Fund Administer.
  • Headings and numbering in these Guidelines relate to those on the Application Form.
  • Completed forms must not exceed the space available.
  • Applicants are advised to provide clear and succinct descriptions of their projects.
  • Reducing the font size and removing paragraph breaks makes the proposal difficult to read.
  • Apart from project costings for Small Projects, no further material will be considered unless specifically requested by the SFF.

1. Project Title

Provide a short and meaningful title for the project.

2. "Community of Interest"/Applicant Group

"Communities of Interest" are groups of people, organisations, or sectors drawn together by a shared problem or opportunity and will be the primary beneficiaries of the results coming out of funded projects. Applications should be submitted directly by the Community of Interest or their agent (e.g., a closely allied organisation or individual).

Please name the Community of Interest (or agent) submitting the application, and briefly describe the Community of Interest being represented — including:

  • 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 3.

3. Project Team Composition

The project manager is the person responsible for delivering the project results (and may, or may not, be the contact person).

Please list other individuals who have a 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.

4. Contact Details

Any contact from the SFF during the application process will be directed via this person. Therefore, 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.

5. 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?

Where possible, this section should provide detail of the magnitude or importance of 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).

6. SFF $$ Requested and Start Date

Please record the SFF amount requested for each year as well as the overall SFF project total. Please also note the project’s expected start date.

7. 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:

  1. Project Design and Direction — 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.
  2. Knowledge Transfer/Extension — Describe how new information or knowledge generated will be communicated to the Community of Interest, and, where appropriate, to wider stakeholder interests.
  3. 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 or the individual or organisation who will provide any specialist (e.g., technical) skills required, or else outline how such skills will be sourced.

8. Previous Work

Clearly specify previous relevant work and describe how this project will build on, and add value to, this existing knowledge or practice base.

9. Milestones

Note: Only Small Projects (less than $20,000) complete this section in full. Projects >$20k need only supply high-level milestone descriptors at this Phase I stage.

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.

Description — Describe the major milestones for your project. These should reflect the activities and outputs described in Section 7 (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 key findings in industry publication…; Host field day/workshop in x, y, z…).

Note: As all SFF projects must provide a summary report upon completion (i.e., a Final Report), this will be the final milestone.

Due Date — For each milestone please provide a planned completion date.

Estimated Costs — Please 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.

10. Project Funding

Applicants are required to complete this table3 that describes where all the project’s funds will come from. All figures provided should be GST inclusive.

Note: Small Projects (i.e., 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 is 80% of the project value (excluding other central government funding contributions). 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 have a stronger case for selection.

Please provide the name(s) and amount(s) of contributions from other sources (including local government, private funds, trusts, etc). Space on the form is limited, so contributions can be amalgamated into headings4 (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 may be made contingent upon co-funding being secured.

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 headings5.

An example of how applicants can calculate this information can be found at Annex 1 of these guidelines.

Application Confirmation and Submission

A duly authorised agent of the Community of Interest / Applicant Group must submit the application electronically to sffund@maf.govt.nz by midnight on Monday 12 February 2007.

Applications received after this date will not be considered.

Note:
• Please put the project title in the "subject" line of your submission e-mail.
• Hardcopies are not required, and 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.

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
  1. 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
  1. 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

1As a Government agency, MAF is required to supply all information it holds in compliance with the Official Information Act.
2Note that this is a change from previous rounds where the 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.
3The 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.
4SFF may request specific cash contribution details from applicants later in the assessment process.
5SFF 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 008 333
Fax: 04 894 0746
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