Green shoots of innovation from bushfires

Published 10 May 2021

A new initiative from UNE's SMART Region Incubator (UNE SRI) will be asking young people to think about the challenge of living with an increasingly variable climate.

The SRI's Scorched project, supported by the NSW Government, will use startup enterprise methods to explore innovative ideas for building business and economic resilience to the challenges posed by climate extremes.

Scorched is backed by $287,000 from the NSW Government's Bushfire Community Recovery and Resilience Fund (BCRRF), which invests in "community wellbeing, connectedness, social recovery, and future disaster resilience".

A diverse range of Armidale institutions – BackTrack and Armidale Secondary College, Renew Armidale, and Armidale Regional Council – supported the SRI application.

"The devastating 2019-2020 bushfires were a powerful reminder that our future climate will require different approaches to how we conduct business, along with many other aspects of our lives" said Dr Lou Conway, Director of the UNE SRI.

"Who better to think about the future than the people who will own it – our young people?"

"When we bring the energy, drive and passion of young people to the challenges of our climate reality, we have the fuel to generate new solutions and enterprises that can make a difference in our communities."

Scorched aims to work with up to 200 young people (aged 12-35 years) in the Armidale region. Participants will have access to technologists, land managers, and business owners in a quest to prototype solutions to the challenges posed by climate variability, particularly bushfires.

Announcing the BCRRF funding today, Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall, said the Scorched program promised new approaches to community and business resilience by harnessing the ideas of young entrepreneurs, so far an untapped resource.

"We owe it to those places hardest hit by the ‘Black Summer’ fires, villages like Ebor and Wytaliba, to leave no stone unturned when it comes to investigating new ways to address fire management," Mr Marshall said.

“No idea is a silly one and I look forward to hearing the concepts which result from Scorched, and more importantly hope to see some of them implemented as practical solutions to protecting livelihoods and lives.”

In the first stage of the program, a UNE SRI coordinator will host hackathon-style events and other business events to clearly delineate the challenges that need solving. Participants will work with key stakeholders such as the Rural Fire Service and other emergency services, the Country Women's Association, landholders, health professionals and government agencies.

The second part of the program will deliver four eight-week business resilience programs that support young people in the process of taking an idea and building it into a business startup or other business opportunity.

Each stage will culminate in a public pitch event through which participants can share ideas and explore with others the potential for taking their concepts through to business opportunities.

"Ultimately, the success of Scorched will lie in how effectively the participants and their ideas are embraced by local business networks," Dr Conway said.

"We hope that the program will help build the sort of confidence in our business community that is need to proactively build solutions to address life under a changing climate."

The Scorched program will start on 1 July 2021 and complete on 30 June 2023.

About the UNE SRI

The UNE SRI is a business incubator in the New England North West for people who have a business idea and want to grow it into an enterprise.

The SRI has three physical spaces – in Armidale, Tamworth and Moree. It is dedicated to supporting next-generation founders with new ideas for addressing challenges affecting the region's communities: climate variability, water scarcity, renewable energy, health, waste and food production.

The SRI currently supports 60 existing startups and enterprises across the region who are working on solutions for agriculture, health, the environment and creative industries. The average age of current founders is 44 years of age; these founders are working as mentors and supporters to young entrepreneurs.

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