2: Criteria
for Applicants and Applications
2.1 Criteria for Applicants and Applications
The four key guiding concepts for the Trust are Protect – Restore – Health – Wellbeing. These
de ne much of the criteria for what sort of projects should be funded. The Trust has developed
a range of criteria that should guide applicants in considering whether (and how) to prepare an
application for funding. Some of these criteria are mandatory (i.e. all applicants must meet them),
and others are intended to guide applicants in terms of what the Trust believes to be important.
2.2 Threshold Criteria
The Trust expects that all applications should meet the following broad ‘threshold tests’ before
being considered eligible for funding:
• Any organisation or group applying for funds of more than $10,000 must be GST registered.
• Projects must be focused on the four key guiding concepts of protecting, restoring,
health and wellbeing in relation to the Waikato River and its catchment. Projects must be
technically achievable, and applications should clearly demonstrate this. Whilst the Trust
will consider funding projects in the absence of full scientifc/maatauranga maaori certainty,
preference will be given to projects with a high degree of certainty of success.
• All projects must have a positive cost / bene t – that is, the project bene ts must be
demonstrably greater than the cost of the project. Bene ts will be considered fairly across
the four wellbeings of cultural, social, environmental and economic (the Trust recognises
that not all bene ts are able to be readily quanti ed).
• Applicants must know the outcomes the projects will deliver and have a monitoring
framework so it is clear what constitutes ‘success’. Project applications must demonstrate
how monitoring will occur (e.g. site visits and peer review both during the project and after
it is completed).
2.3 Objectives outlined in Legislation
In addition to the threshold criteria above, all applications for projects are required to meet the
objectives of the Trust outlined in the legislation and summarised below. These include:
a) The Trust should not fund a project or a part of a project that another agency would fund (or
be likely to fund) in the normal course of its operations if the Trust did not exist;
b) The Trust seeks e ciency in the allocation and use of funding, including having particular
regard to the desirability of applicants using matching or supplemental funding from other
sources;
c) Preference will be given to projects that achieve practical results over projects that are
purely for research purposes;
d) The Trust requires that adequate regard be given to the Vision and Strategy in applications,
including clear demonstration of how proposed projects will give e ect to the Vision and
Strategy;
e) The Trust requires that adequate regard be given to the report of the Waikato River
Independent Scoping Study;
f) The Trust requires that adequate regard be given to any other relevant research (either
within or outside the Waikato Catchment); and
g) The Trust requires that adequate regard be given to the extent to which projects would
further iwi environmental plans, in the case of applications from iwi or applications based
on Maatauranga Maaori or on the mauri of the Waikato River.
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