Building Excellence in Support and Training (BEST) Program 2026–27

The BEST Program forms part of the Australian Government’s commitment to supporting the role of ex-service organisation (ESO) compensation and wellbeing advocates, who provide advice and assistance to the veteran and defence communities.

The BEST Program has been updated and simplified in response to the recommendations from the Senate Standing Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee Inquiry into issues relating to advocacy services for veterans accessing compensation and income support, and recommendation 99 of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide final report.

The objectives of the BEST Program are to assist ESOs to:

• provide free advocacy services to veterans and families of veterans
• improve the quality of claims received by DVA at the primary determining level
• promote the provision of wellbeing services to the veteran and defence communities.

The intended outcomes of the BEST Program are to ensure:

• the veteran and defence communities have access to free compensation and wellbeing advocacy services
• the veteran and defence communities benefit from ESO advocates who can lodge claims with DVA that are of a high standard and contain all required information to enable timely and quality decisions at no cost to the veteran
• ESO advocates can assist in improving claims assessment efficiency.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply in your own right, you must be an ESO and one of the following entity types:

• Company
• Cooperative
• Corporate State or Territory Entity
• Incorporated Association
• Indigenous Corporation
• Statutory Entity.

If you are applying as a Trustee on behalf of a Trust , the Trustee and Trust must be ESOs and the Trustee must be an eligible entity type as listed above.

If you are an ESO but not an eligible entity type (as listed above), another ESO with an eligible entity type can apply on your behalf as a sponsor. The sponsor MUST complete and submit the application, not the sponsored ESO.

If you are not an ESO, you are not eligible to apply for a grant (either in your own right, or if you have a sponsor apply on your behalf).

Additional eligibility requirements apply, please see section 4 of the Grant Opportunity Guidelines.