The Rural Research and Development (R&D) for Profit Programme is a competitive grants programme administered by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. The programme implements a 2013 federal election commitment from the then Opposition, and was initially funded for $100 million over four years (from 2014–15 to 2017–18). In July 2015, as part of the Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper, the Government announced an extension of the programme by four years (through to 2021–22) and an additional $100 million in programme funding. The programme aims to realise productivity and profitability improvements for primary producers by:

• generating knowledge, technologies, products or processes that benefit primary producers;
• strengthening pathways to extend the results of rural R&D, including understanding the barriers to adoption; and
• establishing and fostering industry and research collaborations that form the basis of ongoing innovation and growth of Australian agriculture.

The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of the design process for the Rural R&D for Profit Programme, including performance measurement and reporting arrangements. To form a conclusion against the audit objective, the ANAO adopted the following high level audit criteria:

• Did the department establish an appropriate design process to support the achievement of the Government’s policy objectives?
• Did the department establish sound performance measurement, reporting and evaluation arrangements?