New national road safety grants now open

Applications are now open under the first two focus areas of the Australian Government’s new National Road Safety Action Grants Program. 

The grant program, announced in the 2023-24 Budget, will provide vital funding to non-infrastructure road safety projects and programs across the country. 

The launch of the program comes at a time where more Australians are being killed on our roads than in years before, with the road toll sitting at 3.2 per cent higher than this time last year. 

Grants of between $20,000 and $1.5 million are available for the Community Education and Awareness, which includes workplace road safety, as well as the Vulnerable Road Users focus areas.

Grant funding is available for projects up to 2025-26 and anyone seeking funding for, or completing, road safety activities over the next three years are encouraged to now apply.

The Community Education and Awareness stream will fund campaigns, programs or other education and awareness initiatives to support young or disadvantaged drivers to get their licence and have a safer start on our roads, reduce risky behaviours such as drink driving, improve workplace road safety, increase compliance with road rules, and ensure safer interactions between heavy and other vehicles. 

The Vulnerable Road Users stream will support projects that improve road safety for pedestrians, people with a disability, young children, older Australians, motorcyclists, and cyclists. This can include developing technology and research that support these vulnerable road users to safely access our roads, as well as initiatives encourage other road users to better share the roads with them.  

The Government has committed $43.6 million for the program, which will deliver grants across a total of five key focus areas critical to reducing deaths and serious injuries on Australia’s roads. 

The program is open to a range of organisations including not-for-profit and research, as well as Local, State and Territory Governments. Applications for these first two focus areas close at 11.59pm on 25 August 2023.

The next two focus areas, First Nations road safety and Technology and Innovation, are expected to open for applications later this year – with the final focus area of Research and Data set to open early 2024. 

For more information, including the grant guidelines to check your eligibility and apply, visit www.roadsafety.gov.au or GrantConnect. 

Quotes attributable to Federal Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Carol Brown:

“This new program forms part of our Government’s unwavering commitment to achieving Vision Zero – that’s no deaths on Australia’s roads by 2050, because even one death is one too many.

“These grants target priority areas that will help implement the National Road Safety Action Plan 2023-25, a plan agreed by all states and territories to reduce road trauma and deaths nationwide.

“Collectively, we have a long way to deliver significant reductions in road trauma by 2030. Road safety is everyone’s responsibility, and together through programs like this, we can work to make a real difference on our roads – so I encourage road safety and other organisations to apply.”