Projects eligible for funding
Projects must meet the eligibility criteria under the Digital Restart Fund Act 2020 to be eligible for funding.
A. They must align to one or more categories of the fund:
- Life Events
- State Digital Assets
- Front line systems modernisation (Legacy)
- Capability Building.
B. In addition to the categories of the fund, projects must align to the one or more focus areas:
- Improving outcomes for housing availability
- Energy, renewables, and the natural environment
- Automate to streamline work and improve frontline services
- Improved accessibility of government services
- Reduction of cyber risk.
C. Projects must meet the following objectives of the fund, creating a score to rank projects in the DRF Pipeline:
- Strategic alignment
- Viability
- Desirability
- Feasibility.
Projects not eligible for funding
- Physical Infrastructure (non-ICT)
- Local Government (This does not exclude eligible govt programs that are integrating with local government and may involve co-contribution e.g., Smart Cities)
- BAU technology run costs
- Already fully funded by other funding sources, e.g., Commonwealth, existing Portfolio capital allocations etc.
- Operating technology (e.g., card scanners, magnetic resonance imaging etc.)
- Proposals that require future funding and resources to develop business cases
NSW Government agencies are encouraged to consider the broader applicability and potential benefits of initiatives to other environments and beneficiaries outside the state government sector when bringing forward proposals to the DRF.
Pipeline prioritisation process
The approach to how we fund Digital and ICT projects is evolving with new Government priorities in 2023. The Digital Restart Fund is a sector leading instrument to drive digital transformation and as such we want to ensure that we continue to fund initiatives that have the largest impact to the citizens of NSW.
Projects must meet the DRF eligibility criteria
PoAs own the priority of the projects within their Portfolio, and any investment coming into the pipeline must have a portfolio priority relative to all other investments loaded in the pipeline for that portfolio.
DSIA will assess the initiative to determine:
- Fund categories. Life Journeys, State Digital Assets (SDA), Front Line Systems Modernisation and Enabling Capabilities
- Funding pathway (seed or scale)
- Overall pipeline priority. The DTB role is to endorse and recommend funding allocations across all categories. The pipeline provides an overall priority along with the portfolio and fund category priority to inform this decision.
DSIA assesses the pipeline
PoAs are consulted prior to their initiative proceeding to the DTB
The results of DTBs decision are provided back to the project owner
If the decision is approved to proceed, DSIA will engage with the project owner to complete the business case development and assessment process including seek endorsement from the relevant governance forums and Minister approval.
Stage 2 checklist
What's next
Stage 3: Prioritised projects meet requirements
Prioritised scale and seed projects will need to complete and comply with relevant requirements