Tender Advertisement #1353229

Request for Proposal: AL22009 - Australian almond variety evaluation program
Horticulture Innovation Australia (Hort Innovation) is a not-for-profit, grower-owned Research and Development Corporation (RDC) for Australia’s $14.4 billion horticulture industry. Hort Innovation invests around $110 million in research and development (R&D) and marketing programs annually to provide benefit to industry and the wider community.
Hort Innovation is seeking a suitably qualified, experienced and capable delivery partner for the project: Australian almond variety evaluation program (AL22009).
The objectives of the services being sought are to;
• To continue assessment of existing progeny developed through project AL17005 - National Almond Breeding and Evaluation Program, involving the use of novel tools and technologies (including genetic markers) that may improve efficiency of evaluation and analysis processes.
• To continue with a focus on breeding traits including self-compatibility, tight shell seal, hull rot, rust and bacterial spot resistance, improved architecture suitable for shake and catch harvest and traits that confer climate resilience.
• To include grower trials at larger scale on commercial almond orchards to validate variety assessments under Australian production and management regimes in different almond producing regions, this will be developed in collaboration with the Almond Board of Australia (ABA) Plant Improvement Committee.
• To link with the other almond levy funded crop production, and communication & extension projects to maximise benefits from research activities, in addition to linkage with Hort Innovation Frontiers funded projects associated with tree intensification, pollination and genomic data generation.
• To collaborate with international organisations to the benefit of the Australian Almond industry.
• To continue to progress commercialisation of new varieties to enable grower adoption based on advice from the ABA Plant Improvement Committee regarding suitability of varieties for the Australian Almond industry.
• To collaborate with project AS17000 - National Tree Genomics Program (and any successive tree genomic focused projects that include outcomes for the Australian Almond industry through variety improvement and screening).

Hort Innovation has prepared a Request for Proposal (RFP) document that provides background information, outlines the scope of services, the procurement process and the information required from interested parties.
The RFP may be downloaded from www.tenders.net (you will need to be a member of tenders.net to access this information).
The closing date for responses is (AEDT), 12/04/2023 3:00PM.