The AVF focuses on funding research projects addressing the wine industry's core problems and priorities, such as improving viticulture and enology, boosting grape and wine quality, enhancing sustainability, and ensuring the effective dissemination of research findings within the wine community. It places a high value on education and outreach to facilitate the rapid adoption of innovative practices and technologies in grape and wine production.
The AVF grant program aims to support research projects that align with the wine industry's most pressing needs, as identified through an industry-wide survey. These projects should seek to address viticultural and enological challenges, enhance the quality of grapes and wine, promote sustainable practices, and ensure that research findings are effectively shared with the wine community. A significant emphasis is placed on education and outreach activities, encouraging researchers to engage in efforts such as publishing articles, giving presentations, and participating in webinars, to keep the industry informed of research progress and results. The program supports a broad range of interdisciplinary themes aimed at producing tangible benefits for the industry while acknowledging the constraints of scope and funding on individual proposals. Additionally, the AVF emphasizes the importance of including objectives related to information transfer in research proposals and offers a separate review category for projects specifically designed to address education and outreach needs.