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Our investments in RD&E

We use the CRDC Strategic RD&E Plan 2018–23 to guide our investments. Through this Strategic Plan, in 2019–20 we invested to help increase productivity and profitability on Australian cotton farms; improve cotton farming sustainability and value chain competitiveness; build the adaptive capacity of the Australian cotton industry; strengthen partnerships and adoption; and drive RD&E impact.

We achieved a balanced RD&E portfolio that considers the distribution of our investment across:

  • The RD&E strategies
  • The type of research, including innovation, knowledge creation, knowledge transfer and application, benchmarking, industry capacity, and education
  • In-project risks
  • Researcher experience and capacity
  • Research providers
  • Timeframe to outcomes
  • The likely return on investment for projects and programs
  • Expenditure on RD&E management.

In 2019–20, we invested $16.7 million in RD&E. Of this, $7.6 million was invested in new research commencing in 2019–20.

Projects by CRDC program area

Number of projects

117

31

40

40

6

234

Program expenditure ($m)*

$12.5

$1.6

$0.9

$1.3

$0.4

$16.7

Program percentage (of expenditure)

75%

10%

5%

8%

2%

100%

* Excludes budgeted employee and supplier expenditure and corporate research activities that support R&D planning and adoption. Some percentages have been rounded up or down.

Investment by program

 2%.

Total number of CRDC projects

CRDC projects

2018–19

2019–20

Active projects

130

135

New projects funded

148

83

Projects completed

143

118

Continuing projects

135

116

Further detail on CRDC’s projects can be found in Section 4: RD&E Portfolio, and in Appendix 3: RD&E Portfolio.