Australia Opens 7 Fisheries Research Calls: Apply by Nov 1

Australia’s fisheries regulator has opened its research funding call for 2027/28 — and the clock is short. The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) is inviting full research proposals against seven published priority scopes, with completed proposals due by 1 November 2026. If your team works on prawn, tuna or deep-water fisheries science, this is one of the most direct routes to funded Australian fisheries research this year.

Call at a Glance

Important honesty note: AFMA describes this as a call for proposals for potential funding — submitting a proposal does not guarantee an award, and the call document does not publish a fixed grant amount. Do not budget on an assumed figure; state your projected costs and funding sources in the proposal itself, as AFMA requires.

The 7 Research Priorities

The AFMA Research Committee (ARC) is calling for full proposals under these seven scopes:

1. Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF) — Advancing Sustainability, 2028–2031: Strengthen multispecies assessments by incorporating environmental drivers (tides, currents, river flow) into tiger prawn population dynamics. Outputs include full tiger prawn assessments for 2028 and 2030, Maximum Economic Yield (MEY)-based Total Allowable Effort (TAE) for 2028–2031, Redleg banana prawn stock status and TAE for 2028–2030, and annual MEY catch-rate triggers for white banana prawns. Multi-year contract of up to three years.
2. NPF — Integrated fishery-independent data, 2028–2031: Gulf of Carpentaria trawl surveys feeding the biennial multispecies stock assessment model — annual recruitment surveys in January/February (2028, 2029, 2030; 310 trawl sites) and a biennial spawning survey in July 2029 (210 trawl sites) — covering eight commercial prawn populations plus byproduct and at-risk bycatch species. Multi-year contract of up to three years.
3. NPF — Long-term catch trend analysis of bycatch species, 2026–2029: Use scientific observer, crew member observer (CMO), electronic monitoring and integrated monitoring data to assess Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) and at-risk bycatch species, with annual sustainability assessment reports due in November 2027, 2028 and 2029.
4. Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) — Inter-sessional science, 2027/28–2029/30: Ongoing scientific advice and support to AFMA and the SBT Management Advisory Committee (SBTMAC) for monitoring and implementing SBT management arrangements.
5. South East Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF) — Calibration of the Modular Acoustic Optical Survey (M-AOS) unit for future orange roughy surveys.
6. SESSF — Review of Tier 1 assessments of SESSF stocks.
7. Small Pelagic Fishery (SPF) — Redbait West Daily Egg Production Method (DEPM) survey.

Who Should Apply

• Universities and research institutes with fisheries stock assessment, survey, acoustic or ecosystem-modelling capacity — especially teams already working on the Northern Prawn Fishery, southern bluefin tuna, SESSF or small pelagics.
• Consultants and specialist research providers who can deliver survey fieldwork, data analysis or assessment modelling to AFMA’s specifications.
• Teams with industry links: several NPF scopes are developed in collaboration with the Northern Prawn Resource Assessment Group (NPRAG), AFMA and the Northern Prawn Fishery Industry Association (NPFI) — proposals that show end-user collaboration fit the call’s design.

How to Apply — Checklist

1. Use the 2027/28 priority scopes as your guide — build the proposal around the published scope, not a generic research idea.
2. Use the AFMA research application form attached to the call.
3. Include projected costs and the expected funding source, plus alternatives — AFMA explicitly requires this.
4. Give the contractor’s full legal identity: each corporation’s full description and Australian Company Number, or the full names of all partners/joint venturers. Add a trading name and/or Australian Business Number only if registered to the parties described.
5. Break down costings by component where a scope requires it (for example, each individual stock assessment, or each spawning/recruitment survey).
6. Talk to AFMA first: applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss their proposal with the relevant AFMA Fisheries Manager or the AFMA Research Section before submission.
7. Email the completed proposal to research.secretary@afma.gov.au by 1 November 2026. Note that 1 November 2026 is a Sunday — do not leave submission to the last day.

Why This Call Matters

These seven scopes are not generic research themes — they feed directly into the management decisions AFMA must make: effort and catch limits for tiger and banana prawns, sustainability reporting for protected bycatch species, tuna management advice, and the next round of deep-water stock assessments. For researchers, that means funded work with a clear end user. For the wider fisheries community, it means the science behind Australia’s Commonwealth fisheries management for 2027/28 is being commissioned right now.

Sources & Official Links

• AFMA news item, 27 September 2026: “Public Call for Research Proposals for AFMA Funding in 2027/28” (afma.gov.au).
• AFMA Research Committee call document: Research priorities for potential AFMA funding in 2027/28 (PDF) — deadline, submission email, application requirements and all seven priority scopes verified 24 October 2026.

All dates, deadlines and figures in this post were checked against the official AFMA call document and AFMA’s news page on 24 October 2026. The 1 November 2026 deadline is in the future at the time of publication. Funding amounts are not stated because AFMA’s call does not publish them — this is a call for proposals for potential funding, not a guaranteed award.