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Communities and Justice

Access to Justice Innovation Fund

About the fund

The AJIF provided grants of between $50,000 and $250,000 to support new innovative projects designed to improve the way legal problems are solved.

The AJIF had a total value of $1 million, with up to $250,000 in grants available annually for four years (2019-20 to 2022-23).

The minimum grant that could be applied was is $50,000. The maximum grant that could be applied for was $250,000. Multiple grants could be awarded each financial year, to a total value of $250,000. Projects could be 12 or 18 months in length.

The AJIF was part of our Civil Justice Action Plan, which aims to help remove the barriers that prevent common disputes from being resolved quickly and fairly.

Previous grant recipients

  • 2019-20: Marrickville Legal Centre was granted $250,000 to develop an online chatbot NALA (New Age Legal Assistant).
  • 2020-21: Justice Connect was awarded $174,000 to build a language processing model to help people who lack legal literacy.
  • 2020-21: The University of Sydney received $76,000 to develop a fairer assessment model for parents with cognitive disability involved in care proceedings before the Children’s Court.
  • 2021-22: Newcastle Women's Domestic Violence Advocacy Service received $83,000 to develop a pre-hearing clinic video in multiple languages to support victim-survivors of domestic and family violence prepare for hearings in the Local Court.
  • 2021-22: The University of Newcastle received $125,000 to develop a culturally safe screening tool to better inform justice professionals’ understanding of the trauma-related backgrounds of young people involved in the justice system.
  • 2022-23: The University of NSW received $250,000 to develop a platform to help people navigate the various complaint handling bodies. The platform will empower individuals to act for themselves when making a complaint and will also refer people to organisations and services to guide and assist them further if required. It will be created in partnership with the National Justice Project and Portable Australia, and in collaboration with Macquarie University and Microsoft.

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