This conference is organised by the Southern eDNA Society (SeDNAs - sednasociety.com), Australia and New Zealand's scientific society for the environmental DNA discipline. SeDNAS aims to promote best practices and help the adoption of methods across sectors, by closely working together with researchers, industry, and government. Conferences are organised biannually, alternating between Australia and New Zealand. The first conference (Hobart 2023) was uniformly well received by the attendees, particularly the focus on end-user applications and collaboration. Unlike many other scientific conferences, SeDNAs makes a point of inviting key stakeholders from industry and government to both attend the conference and present their own work or research needs. We found this stimulated discussions to be more likely to develop real-world research collaborations of higher relevance to end-users.

Including and supporting ECRs is an integral part of the mission of SeDNAs. We offer a range of sponsorship opportunities, but as part of our drive to ensure eDNA research benefits industry stakeholders, we are reaching out to key organisations interested in supporting ECRs to travel to the conference. FRDC bursaries would showcase the relevance of FRDC to upcoming molecular fisheries researchers and the broader eDNA community, while also offering FRDC a cost-efficient opportunity to remain abreast of the most cutting edge developments in the field.

Full sponsorship details are on-line at: https://apmbc2023.com/#sponsorship . FRDC will be given the opportunity to select a specified package or negotiate something more suitable to them. The Conference organisers would greatly appreciate a sponsorship amount in the order of $15,000, equivalent to bronze sponsor. FRDC rather than a "Bronze Sponsorship" package might alternatively prefer, for example, to fund a number of "Speaker Session Support Packages" (e.g. "Aquaculture and Fisheries") or a "Forum" (e.g. "Early Career Researchers" or "Woman Leadership").

The entitlements to FRDC will vary with the sponsorship package they choose, so I have not outlined each here but refer the reader to the link provided above to the web site where they are provided in detail. It is recommended that FRDC ring Rebecca Gabriel, the professional Conference event organiser (All Occasions Group - All Occasions Management) addressing sponsorships (08 8125 2200 (Option 1) press 2 for Sponsorship) or contact the Conference Sponsor Coordinator, Steven Clarke (Mobile: 0499 837 337).