Better Public Services (BPS) Seed Fund

The Better Public Services Seed Fund was established in 2013 to speed up the development of cross-agency initiatives that contribute to Better Public Services (BPS).

More than 50 per cent of the seed funding provided to date has been allocated to the priority areas of all-of-government ICT, Result 9 and Result 10.

BPS Seed Fund initiatives must have the potential to create significant benefits across the system, be developed collaboratively and to produce high-quality information to inform future investment decisions. The majority of seed funding has been used for business case development or 'proof-of-concept' prototyping activities. Following development, investment decisions for seed-funded initiatives are made through regular processes, such as the Budget. In some instances, these decisions will need to be informed by a Better Business Case or Regulatory Impact Analysis.

Systematic evaluation of impact is a key element of seed-funded initiatives. The expectation is that initiatives will not proceed to implementation without both solid evidence of impact and a robust value proposition.

Treasury manages the BPS Seed Fund on behalf of central agencies. Decisions about the use of the Fund are made by the Minister of Finance, the Minister of State Services and the Associate Ministers of Finance, on the advice of central agency chief executives.

Applications for Funding

2016/17 is the final year of the BPS Seed Fund (the Fund) and the final funding round will be held in November 2016. Information for agencies seeking seed funding is provided in the documents below.

As this the last round of the Fund we expect there to be significant pressure on the available funding and strongly encourage you to engage with Treasury officials prior to submitting any bids. You can do this either through the Treasury vote analyst for your agency or at [email protected]. This will give us an opportunity to work with you to develop bids which align well with the Fund’s criteria and are, therefore, more likely to be successful.

Applications can be made via the attached Better Public Services Seed Fund Application Form and submitted electronically to [email protected]. The next round closes at 5.00pm on Friday 4 November 2016.

Documents