Open innovation call to realise step changes in soil and water productivity and unlock plant potential

PLEASE SEE THE APPROACH TO MARKET ON THE GRDC WEBSITE FOR ALL AVAILABLE INFORMATION FOR THIS REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL: https://grdc.com.au/research/partnering-in-rde-investment/opportunities/current-opportunities/open-innovation-call-to-realise-step-changes-in-soil-and-water-productivity-and-unlock-plant-potential Background to the open innovation call A concerted RD&E focus on improving water use efficiency (WUE) has enabled Australian growers to become world leaders in dryland grain production. Improved varieties, agronomic practices, cropping sequences, soil amelioration and other innovations have underpinned these gains. However, growers still have a need to take these gains in water use efficiency and push them even further given climate projections of hotter, drier conditions across most of southern Australia, a decline in cool-season rainfall, and more frequent and extreme weather events. Growers’ ability to outpace these challenges through new frontiers in soil and water productivity and unlocking plant potential will be a key determinant of future profitability and resilience. Overview of the open innovation call There is significant value to be captured for growers through the removal of soil constraints, increasing water and nutrient uptake, and increasing the efficiency with which water and nutrient reserves are used by crops. GRDC has made substantial investments in soil amelioration and soil re-engineering to help growers and will continue to do so. These investments have generated valuable knowledge and demonstrated substantial productivity gains. However, key questions remain about the soil–plant–microbial processes behind these gains, particularly why some interventions do not deliver the expected benefits. This open innovation call will complement existing investments by addressing these and other knowledge gaps and unlock further production potential. The opportunity to drive innovation in these areas is often constrained by a lack of foundational knowledge below-ground on soil-plant-microbial interactions. Foundational knowledge on root form, function, and diversity, soil microbial function and community dynamics, rhizosphere interactions, below-ground phenotyping and related areas underpin the opportunity to create new frontiers in soil and water productivity and the unlocking of plant potential. Therefore, GRDC is progressing an open innovation call to address these foundational knowledge gaps and create the capacity and momentum that could enable crops to gain access to more water and nutrients and use them more effectively. GRDC is seeking project proposals that deliver against one or more of six-high level scope areas that represent key gaps in the GRDC portfolio (Table 1). GRDC expects that projects established through this open innovation call may be connected into a future ‘below-ground mission’ through research forums, study tours, and other mechanisms that foster mutually beneficial collaborations. Applications are encouraged from: • Australian and/or international organisations, • Public and/or private entities, and • Existing GRDC projects that could be strategically varied/expanded to address the scope areas.