6-minute read

Finalists of the 2023 Innovate with nbn Grant Program have been decided.

Fourteen finalists, across seven categories, are vying for a share of $125,000 in grants as part of the 2023 program, with winners to be announced on 23 November in Sydney.

Each finalist is in the running for $15,000 in grants across seven categories including Health, Agriculture, Tourism, Arts, Education, Indigenous Business and Women in Business.

The winner of each category will receive a $15,000 grant. Each category winner will be considered by the judges to determine who will be the overall winner and receive an additional $20,000.

nbn Chief Development Officer Regional and Remote Gavin Williams said finalists were decided from more than 100 applications.

“We had entries from all over Australia, and some of our finalists are returning entrants who have continued to refine and improve their innovative ideas,” says Gavin.

“We’re looking for businesses harnessing the benefits of the nbn^® network to develop products or solutions that improve digital participation, productivity or social outcomes for regional and remote Australians.

“These finalists stand as prime examples of harnessing the nbn network to pioneer innovative solutions and elevate digital capabilities in regional and remote Australia.

“I’m confident, that among this group of finalists and eventual winners, we have found them.”

The 2023 Innovate with nbn Grant Program Finalists are:

Motherland – Dunorlan, TAS

As a national charity, Motherland advocates for the emotional wellbeing of rural mothers in Australia and delivers services that help build resilience and improve mental health outcomes.

They are ready to launch ‘Motherland Connect’, Australia’s first digital resource hub for rural mums, a one-stop shop connecting rural women to the services they need to support their mental and physical health, along with services that can assist them in dealing with the additional complexities and pressures of life on the land.

Eazilee – Torquay, VIC

Eazilee is a new knowledge sharing platform that supports people with a disability to find the right Assistive Technology to solve everyday challenges.

People living with a disability have traditionally relied on word-of-mouth advice and clinician prescription to choose their assistive technology, without any kind of centralised, trusted source for information.

There is an opportunity for Eazilee to disrupt the traditional model and elevate customer voices through peer reviews and share knowledge.

Definium Technologies – Invermay, TAS

Definium is in the early stages of the design, development, and on-site testing of the Mountain Bike Emergency Call Device (MoBECaD) for St Helens Mountain Bike Trails located on the East Coast of Tasmania.

The MoBECaD will provide a mechanism for riders to raise an alarm should they (or a fellow rider) be injured or require medical assistance while riding the trails. Mobile phone reception can be unreliable in the area, and so an alternative, relatively inexpensive communication solution is required to solve this problem.

Arapiles Multimedia – Natimuk, VIC

Arapiles Multimedia is a digitally innovative business who are currently commissioned by the Arapiles Historical Society (AHS) a not-for-profit organisation, to produce short videos, as a tourism initiative of historical sites. This is being achieved by setting up a Vimeo channel, uploading content and providing QR code linking for existing nominated Heritage Trail sites.

This digitally innovative project involves adding QR coding to current historical plaques which will be linked to online videos. Each video will contain photos, video clips and voiceovers of relevant information for each site as provided by historical records from the Arapiles Historical Society (AHS).

Collaborative Health – Wagga, NSW

Speech pathology services in regional and remote areas of NSW are particularly limited, especially in the management of dysphagia (swallowing difficulty).

Collaborative Health Murrumbidgee currently delivers a clinical assessment of swallow function via telehealth using trained assistants. They aim to expand the assessments for residents in rural and remote areas in Murrumbidgee by using a portable, web-based fibre-endoscopic machine.  

Observa Care Pty Ltd – Armidale, NSW

Observa Care is a healthcare service company designed by rural clinicians for rural, regional and remote Australia. Their innovative service model uses advanced remote patient monitoring (RPM) to build a bridge between patients and the healthcare system. Their goal is to improve the lives of rural Australians, using technologies that make healthcare more accessible.

Their service uses wearable sensors to measure patients’ vital signs and overall health status, and wireless technology to transmit that information to clinicians via cloud servers. The wearable technologies they use to measure heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, temperature, and cardiac output. All the data from these wearables is uploaded to a cloud-based dashboard, meaning clinicians can assess individuals’ health status in real-time.

Cured Compliance – Carters Ridge, QLD

Cured Compliance is in the development of an automatic Bluetooth data logger to monitor the cooking and cooling temperatures of all cooked/dried products by butchers.

Their customers will be able to use this device to further automate and enhance their reporting for state regulators to ensure their products are cooked to the required Australian standards. This ensures a butcher can be confident their cooked products are safe for sale and reduce potential fines from regulators.

Enable Ag – Norwood, TAS

Despite significant advancements in agricultural technology (AgTech), many farmers, especially those on family-owned farms, are often isolated and lack the necessary digital awareness and skills to fully harness the benefits of digital tools and technology. This knowledge gap can hinder their efficiency, productivity, and ability to adapt to a rapidly changing world.

The primary purpose of their project is to empower regional farmers with the essential digital skills and mindset required to thrive in today's fast-paced, technology-driven world. They aim to achieve this through a comprehensive series of online courses designed to be straightforward and easy to grasp, using practical examples drawn from the real experiences of the farmers they collaborate with. Their courses include engaging elements such as videos, assessments and 1-1 online coaching to ensure an interactive, custom-tailored and effective learning experience.

Mass Motion – Ballarat, VIC

Poco Film Fest is Regional Victoria's newest short film festival, created by Ballarat creative studio, Mass Motion. The inaugural event took place in Ballarat in July 2022, to a sold-out theatre audience.

The vision of the film fest is to foster new and emerging talent and build a community for filmmakers and movie-goers to share, collaborate and inspire, all the while supporting the Ballarat creative city strategy. Poco aims to bring a world-class event to regional Victoria, giving access to both regional audiences and participants to an event that would normally only be run in capital cities.

Poco Online Festival runs concurrently to the live festival, via the online platform Festivee.com. Using this streaming platform we are able to share all finalists films not just locally, but around the globe.

Rock Academy Pty Ltd – Mt Martha, VIC

Rock Academy is a music collaboration initiative for teenage Australians focusing on Regional Victoria and Southern NSW. They connect teenage musicians for a week of songwriting, rehearsal, recording and performing under the guidance of professional recording and touring musicians.

Each teenage musician is placed in two bands – a cover band and an original band. In the cover band, the musicians select the song to rehearse and perform, there is no pre-approved list of songs. In the original band, the musicians co-write and prepare an original song to record and perform at the end of the week.

After songwriting and instrument-specific workshops and four days of rehearsals, each band performs for the cameras as we produce the Big Show, a YouTube premiere hosted by the mentors featuring all the songs worked up during the week.

Bawamarra – Lisarow, NSW

Bawamarra Consulting is a proud Indigenous-owned regional business launched in July 2022. They are committed to mentoring vulnerable children and youth, fostering cultural education and promoting digital awareness and safety within Indigenous communities.

Indigenous children and youth will benefit from this project as Indigenous communities face unique challenges relating to cyber safety.

They aim to enhance their digital presence with a new website to expand their reach and engage a wider audience. Develop a digital awareness and safety workshop tailored specifically to vulnerable Indigenous children and youth, this will provide knowledge and skills to navigate the digital world safely and responsibly.

Southcoast Seaweed – Batehaven, NSW

The Traditional Aboriginal Knowledge Foraging Online Course is an educational initiative aimed at preserving, sharing, and connecting Australians through the rich traditional knowledge of Aboriginal food systems and foraging practices.

This project will develop an online course that serves as a platform for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to learn about traditional foraging techniques, culinary practices, and cultural significance associated with native foods.

The Eykes Family Trust trading as Disinfluencer – Merimbula, NSW

"Digital Empowerment for Regional Australians with Disabilities" – Aims to leverage the power of the nbn^® network to facilitate digital inclusion and skill development among regional Australians with disabilities.

The core of the project involves creating a series of online workshops designed to help individuals in regional Australia build digital portfolios, thereby enhancing their employability. These workshops will be recorded and made accessible through a dedicated online portal.

Living Connected – Lake Conjola, NSW

Living Connected is a non-profit, community organisation providing free digital mentoring services to seniors using smartphones, tablets, laptops and more recently smartwatches and TVs.

They focus on what individuals want and need to do, not on technology. Their project is a Digital Health Literacy Program, helping seniors to use online information and other resources to better self-manage their health.

Their project will take some pressure off the health system by supporting seniors in regional and remote areas of South East NSW to overcome digital exclusion and improve their digital health knowledge. Enabling them to use online health resources to self-manage their health challenges, remain healthy and enjoy a better quality of life.