Today the first cohort of Australian-Grown Innovation ‘Incubate’ participants was announced at a Hort Connections breakfast in Brisbane. This follows the launch of the program in March this year, which saw 72 participants from across the horticulture supply chain involved in engagement sessions held around the country. 

The ‘Incubate’ cohort, which is made up of 14 growers, will participate in a six-week program designed to offer hands-on support via workshops and mentoring that will refine their inventions, and help understand market desirability and competition before bringing their products and services to life in a third ‘Build’ phase. 

The new Hort Innovation initiative has been designed to drive innovation, working alongside levy funded initiatives, to tackle the most pressing challenges in horticulture and offer participants insights into global best practice in their areas of innovation.

In partnership with Startupbootcamp and Cluster Connect, the program today proudly revealed the members of its inaugural cohort.

Cohort participants:

Brett Fifield, CEO at Hort Innovation, expressed his congratulations to the group. “We are thrilled to welcome 14 participants to the first cohort of the Australian-Grown Innovation Incubate program. We launched this program as we know growers identify incredibly effective solutions to some of the biggest challenges we face as an industry, but don’t often have the support required to bring their solution to life. 

“There are lots of industry changing theories being explored in this first cohort, and we look forward to supporting the participants in bringing their ideas to life,’ explained Fifield. 

Anna Barlow, Food and Agriculture Innovation Partner at Startupbootcamp added “We are excited by the combination of horticulture industry challenges and potential solutions the cohort will explore through the Incubate stage of Australian-Grown Innovation program and seeing how we can support the cohort to validate their ideas.”

“Following the Incubate stage, growers will have the opportunity to progress their ideas to a Build phase, which is a 12-week structured mentoring program to develop a test version of their idea and trial it in a real-world market environment.” 

This program will run over the next five years. Those wishing to participate can learn more or sign up at https://www.frontiers.au/agi/