Telecommunications Disaster Resilience Innovation (TDRI) Program – Innovation Round

Overview

The Telecommunications Disaster Resilience Innovation (TDRI) Program will encourage the development and deployment of innovative, new or emerging technologies and/or solutions that will improve the resiliency of telecommunications against the impacts of natural disasters. The TDRI Program Innovation Round will focus on funding innovative telecommunications technologies that will improve the resiliency, redundancy and availability of telecommunications during and/or following a natural disaster. The Innovation Round has three focus areas: 1: Deployable telecommunications solutions 2: Satellite connectivity 3: Enhanced situational awareness The objective of the TDRI program is to improve the preparedness of Australia’s telecommunications networks against rising climate risks, including against an anticipated increase in the frequency and severity of natural hazards in Australia, by: *Supporting and accelerating the development and deployment of innovative, new or emerging technologies that will improve the resiliency of telecommunications, particularly in rural, regional, remote or First Nations communities; *Demonstrating the benefits of emerging telecommunications technologies in improving disaster resiliency outcomes; and *Encouraging greater collaboration and partnerships between industry and government stakeholders on telecommunications disaster resilience matters The intended outcomes of the program are: *Expedited adoption of emerging telecommunications technologies in Australia that will improve disaster resilience outcomes for Australian communities (including through preventing outages and/or supporting the rapid restoration of services following an outage); and *Reduced instances of telecommunications outages during natural disaster events, including reduced instances of communities being isolated and unable to contact Triple Zero services or access other critical services/supports such as disaster financial assistance.