Annual NSW WIA RD&E Innovation Forum
Abstract
The first NSW RDE Strategic Plan was prepared in June 2016 after the inaugural NSW Wine Innovation Forum which was held in November 2015, as part of the WISCEA project. This was championed by Deb Hailstones and Darren Fahey from NSW DPI in partnership with the NSWWIA and Wine Australia.
This document is the next phase and comes after the second NSW Wine Innovation Forum, held in June 2017.
The Innovation Forums have served as an opportunity for the NSW Wine Industry to engage key personnel, across many technical disciplines and all regions to capture their perspective on the current RDE needs for the NSW Wine Industry.
The RDE priorities that have been identified cover operational and tactical areas through to strategic development initiatives.
The Innovation Forum has also captured areas for future extension, and research and development, across various existing sector programmes including the NSW DPI’s Skills Development Program (SDP), and Wine Australia (WA) funded programs such as the Regional Program (RP) and Incubator Initiative (II).
Finally, several risks, issues and opportunities have been identified that will be useful to various sector stakeholders including: national bodies such as WA, WFA & AV, RDE providers and the state body – NSWWIA. These opportunities span many areas including operational, advocacy or other issues such as tourism, taxation, some of which fall outside the RDE frameworks, but they have been captured for completeness.
Summary
The NSW Wine Innovation Forum in 2015 identified four high-level RDE themes that should be addressed as part of the national RDE framework. This was updated in 2017. These include:
- Maintaining sustainability, profitability and biosecurity in the NSW Wine Industry through a strong RD&E network.
- Improved vineyard performance
- Growing the NSW wine industry by knowing the consumer
- Managing RDE opportunities and outcomes
Included in each theme is a table of initiatives captured from the Forum. Common ideas were grouped together, as well as the perceived gaps across the relevant ‘R, D, E’ pillars. The Forum also identified opportunities for initiatives to be included in relevant programs such as RP, SDP, II or other avenues. Initiatives in green denote that there is already work underway with Wine Australia. Finally, some areas have obvious project opportunities and others require further development. Therefore, it may be appropriate to establish a few industry reference groups to assess these opportunities for potential future research initiatives
In addition to these key themes, several initiatives / opportunities span multiple themes and their importance should be acknowledged:
- Weed & Sucker Control and the use and impacts of herbicides – broad topic, many opportunities.
- Digital & Precision Viticulture – many areas, diverse opportunities, crosses over into virtually all aspects of vineyard operations.
- Sustainability – Entwine, metrics, opportunity to drive this as a state initiative.
- Vineyards of the future – looking ahead – varieties, design, how we do this.