Applications are now open for the Disaster Ready Fund to establish a comprehensive set of disaster resilience and mitigation projects across Australia, in partnership with Australian state, territory and local governments.
DRF Objectives and Investment Principles
The objectives of the program are to:
increase the understanding of natural disaster impacts, as a first step towards reducing the risk of future natural disaster impacts,
increase the resilience, adaptive capacity and/or preparedness of governments, community service organisations and affected communities to future natural disasters to minimise the potential impact of natural hazards and reduce the risk of future natural disasters, and
reduce the exposure to risk, harm and/or severity of a future natural disaster’s impacts, including reducing the recovery burden for governments, cohorts at disproportionate risk, and/or affected communities.
These objectives are underpinned by the DRF Investment Principles, which guide DRF investment decisions and are reflected in the DRF’s activity types and assessment criteria, to encourage projects that are:
Risk informed – Proposals draw on evidence of disaster risk (e.g. risk assessments) when outlining case for funding.
Aligned with plans – Proposals align with existing national, state and territory, and local hazard mitigation and resilience or adaptation plans, or provide evidence that the planning process is underway. Where plans do not exist or are in development, proposals could support the development of those plans.
Priority targeted – Proposals demonstrate alignment with the Second National Action Plan National Actions.
Diverse and equitable – Investment decisions support outcomes across a broad range of natural hazard and project types, geographic areas (including both urban and regional/remote locations), domains (including the social, built and natural environments), and consider the DRF’s potential population impact (including a project’s relative per-capita benefit).
Funding Information
The Australian Government has announced a total of up to $1 billion over five years for the program. For Round Three, $200 million in Commonwealth funding is available in 2025-26, with up to:
$138 million notionally allocated for infrastructure investment (infrastructure funding stream) encompassing the following primary project activity types:
investment in grey infrastructure
investment in green-blue infrastructure (including nature based solutions)
investment in social infrastructure
investment in natural hazard monitoring infrastructure
$59 million notionally allocated for other eligible project types, and
$3 million notionally allocated for administrative support for Lead Agencies.
The maximum project period is:
up to five (5) years for infrastructure funding stream projects, and
up to three (3) years for all other projects.
Eligible Locations
Projects must be delivered:
within the Lead Agency’s respective jurisdiction/s or area of operation, except where agreement to delivery in another Australian jurisdiction is sought and provided (i.e. for multi-jurisdictional projects); or
within the Indian Ocean Territories of Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
Who is eligible to apply?
Only Australian state and territory governments, through Lead Agencies, are eligible to submit Applications to NEMA for DRF funding in Round Three 2025-26.
Lead Agencies will coordinate Project Proposals, provide an indicative rating/ranking and submit Applications to NEMA for funding of selected Project Proposals. Lead Agencies can also develop their own DRF Project Proposals.
Project Proposals to Lead Agencies:
A Lead Agency may only apply for funding in respect of Project Proposals where the Applicant either:
has an Australian Business Number (ABN); or
is a First Nations organisation or a Not-For-Profit organisation;
has the capacity to enter into a legally binding agreement;
