Purpose
The Australian Wine Future Fund has been strategically designed to increase funding opportunities, create additional value, accelerate investments and deliver impactful solutions for the Australian grape and wine sector through two complementary streams:
- Research & Innovation Fund.
- Venture Investments Portfolio.
The creation of the Australian Wine Future Fund is in response to 2024’s One Grape & Wine Sector Plan, which identified the urgent need to unlock additional investment for innovation while the sector’s levies remain flat.
The Fund builds on existing research and innovation strategies, but leverages changes to the amount of Commonwealth Government matching available to Wine Australia for research and innovation, which increased from July 2025 through changes to legislation, enabling Wine Australia to actively seek non-levy funding opportunities.
The Australian Wine Future Fund is working to future-proof investments that deliver tangible impact where it is most needed in response to challenges facing grapegrowers, winemakers and wine businesses.
How it works
The Australian Wine Future Fund will work through two complementary streams to raise an additional $50 million over 5 years to 2030.
Research & Innovation Fund
A target of $35 million over 5 years.
Building on Wine Australia’s investment priorities in the Wine Australia Strategic Plan 2025–30, the Research & Innovation Fund’s co-investment model works in partnership with research organisations, private sector, state governments and industry representative associations, funding co‑designed projects that deliver practical outcomes for vineyard performance, product innovation, sustainability and production efficiency. These investments will complement – not replace – existing levy‑funded research. The Research & Innovation Fund is also intentionally pursuing strategically aligned grants, with or without Wine Australia co-funding.
Venture Investments Portfolio
A target of $15 million over 5 years.
Wine Australia has partnered with Tenacious Ventures to find, fund and support companies building impactful solutions. Under the Venture Investments Portfolio, Wine Australia will invest $2.5 million of non-levy funds alongside Tenacious Ventures’ existing funds and other investors towards a combined target of $15 million over 5 years.
The Venture Investments Portfolio will back early-stage, high-quality, technology-driven companies with the potential to transform viticulture and wine production and strengthen the long-term resilience of the Australian grape and wine sector. Wine Australia will maintain autonomy of investments, to ensure they align with industry priorities and Impact objectives, embedding sustainability and capability building at the core of operations and translating research into commercially viable innovation.
Investment focus areas
The Australian Wine Future Fund will invest in the sector’s priorities as identified by the One Grape & Wine Sector Plan and set out in the Wine Australia Strategic Plan 2025–30 and associated Annual Operational Plans.
The Research & Innovation Fund will seek co-investment for co‑designed projects that deliver practical outcomes for vineyard performance, product innovation, sustainability and production efficiency. Investments through the Venture Investment Portfolio, in partnership with Tenacious Ventures, may include companies in sensors, robotics, advanced production systems, software and data systems, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and biosecurity technologies, particularly where technology enables defensible market advantage and delivers measurable environmental and sector benefits.
Impact
The primary objective of the Australian Wine Future Fund is to increase the amount of research funding available for the Australian grape and wine sector to fast-track innovations that address its most critical challenges. The impact from the Australian Wine Future Fund will be reported within Wine Australia’s Annual Reports. Below are some early examples of the Australian Wine Future Fund impact.
Improvements to Sustainable Winegrowing Australia
The Research & Innovation Fund is being implemented to support efficiency improvements to Sustainable Winegrowing Australia.
Working with Australian Grape & Wine and the Australian Wine Research Institute, the Research & Innovation Fund co-invests the Sustainable Winegrowing Australia membership fees to accelerate changes to the program in line with Governance Review recommendations that include appropriate oversight, governance, committed resourcing and a focus on how to drive continuous improvement of the ease of use and cost effectiveness of the program.
Sustainable Winegrowing Australia supports the sector’s priorities within the One Grape & Wine Sector Plan and the Wine Australia Strategic Plan 2025–30 as it provides the national framework, data, certification and continuous improvement mechanisms that help growers and wineries measure, verify, and improve their environmental and social performance to support the sector to achieve its ESG goals.
Improving environmental sustainability, profitability and competitiveness of the WA wine industry
The Research & Innovation Fund was implemented to support the improvement of environmental sustainability, profitability and competitiveness of the Western Australia wine industry.
Through co-investment with Wines of Western Australia and the Western Australia Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD), the Research & Innovation fund has led to the appointment of an industry engagement officer to drive the adoption of sustainable practices in vineyards and wineries. It has also renewed support for the sustainability and industry project manager to improve sustainability initiatives, conduct a lightweight glass campaign and relocate the Western Australia Vine Improvement Association germplasm collection.
This co-investment aligns with both the One Grape & Wine Sector Plan and the Wine Australia Strategic Plan 2025–30 as it supports the advancement of sustainability and emissions reduction goals, innovation and the extension of key information to support practice change.
As at February 2026, in addition to the above, a further 10 research projects have received additional support through the Research & Innovation Fund, including:
- Development and adoption of new tools for the surveillance and management of grapevine phylloxera with Agriculture Victoria
- Best practice sampling and virus detection in Australian grapevine propagation assets with Agriculture Victoria
- Accelerating and scaling adoption of drought resilience technologies with Farmers2Founders
- Electrification of Vineyard Practices with Agriculture Victoria
- Wine Victoria Technical and Innovation Lead with Agriculture Victoria
- Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) for smoke impact remediation of wine with amaea Limited
- Best’s Wines and Agri Automation collaboration to demonstrate UVC solution for powdery mildew control
- Development, validation and scale-up of smoke taint prediction technology for the Australian wine industry and wine producers globally with La Trobe University
- Strategic Research Agreement with the Australian Wine Research Institute, and
- Strategic Research Agreement with the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI).
Investment opportunity
If you have an investment opportunity, contact: jay.jayeshwaran@wineaustralia.com
Frequently asked questions
How does the new funding mechanism work and where is the additional Commonwealth matching coming from?
Changes to the agricultural levy framework have removed the historical levy cap. From 1 July 2025, Wine Australia can access more Commonwealth Government matched funding for research and innovation than was previously available – now up to 0.5 per cent of gross value of production (GVP).
How does this fit within Wine Australia’s role under the Wine Australia Act 2013?
Unlocking new funding opportunities will help deliver Wine Australia’s statutory obligations relating to research and innovation. The goal is to create additional value for levy payers by increasing the amount of funding invested into research and innovation activities.
Who will make investment decisions and what governance structures are in place?
The Australian Wine Future Fund and its individual components will be managed by the Wine Australia Board and management, along with partners as required. All research investments will align with the One Grape & Wine Sector Plan and the Wine Australia Strategic Plan 2025–30.
For the Venture Investments, Wine Australia will invest in startups alongside Tenacious Ventures funds. Tenacious Ventures will assist Wine Australia in creating a pipeline of investments, manage the investments and report on performance of investments. While Tenacious Ventures will assist Wine Australia in managing the investments, Wine Australia will continue to maintain autonomy on its investment decisions.
Like all Wine Australia investments, investments under the Australian Wine Future Fund will be subject to regular reporting and scrutiny and will be overseen by Wine Australia’s Board.
All Wine Australia investments must meet the performance principles set out in the Wine Australia’s Statutory Funding Agreement with the Commonwealth Government. Wine Australia’s performance against these principles is subject to continued oversight and is formally reviewed annually by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
Why is Wine Australia entering the venture investments space rather than leaving it to the private sector?
The Venture Investments Portfolio is to complement, not compete with, private investment. Venture Investments will provide the opportunity for a path to market for new products and services. Some other rural Research Development Corporations have implemented (or are in the process of) similar initiatives to unlock additional funding in the face of declining levy value.
Will Wine Australia raise capital from investors?
No. Wine Australia has partnered with Tenacious Ventures, who has raised capital across its various venture funds.
Will this create additional costs or administration burden for levy payers?
No. Levy funds will remain separate from the Australian Wine Future Fund and will continue to support research and development projects and attract Commonwealth Government matching. The Australian Wine Future Fund is an addition to our existing levy-funded research and innovation investments, not a replacement.
Who are Tenacious Ventures?
Tenacious Ventures is Australia’s leading agri-food investment and insights platform. Their portfolio includes supporting companies including Azaneo, Jupiter Ionics, SwarmFarm Robotics, Cecil and Agovor.