Locals hit the grants jackpot

Western Australia’s buoyant economy has improved local companies’ strike rate in accessing support through AusIndustry’s competitive grants programs. 

In 2006, AusIndustry, the program delivery division of the Australian Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources, awarded grants of more than $45 million to 59 companies in WA.

AusIndustry state manager Peter Viney told WA Business News the program had expanded considerably in WA amid ongoing positive economic conditions.

“Last year we got about 14 per cent to 15 per cent of up to the $200 million a year that is allocated to funding,” Mr Viney said.

“Commercial Ready and Renewable Energy Development Initiative (REDI) approvals for this year run at over $38 million, which represents 19 per cent of total approvals [Australia wide].

“This is a significant number and some of the justifications for this are that there is an awful amount of activity in Western Australia, which seems to correlate with all the capital investments which are incredibly high.

“It is a big difference compared to a couple of years ago when we were averaging about 7 per cent of the precursor grant total.” 

Mr Viney said there were several criteria AusIndustry used to determine which companies received grant funding, including the company’s management capability, its technical merit and the commercial merit of the company.

“[AusIndustry’s] focus is on ensuring we are finding and bringing companies through the programs that create outcomes which are about growing the basis of commercial innovation in Western Australia,” he said.

“The companies we look for are those which inevitably have growth potential and in a practical sense in Western Australia are capable of engaging effectively in international markets, because that is where the commercialisation returns will later come from when you get moving beyond the local domestic market.”

Mr Viney said other criteria included how the company would create jobs, its export potential and in terms of flow-on externalities for other industries in the state.

AusIndustry also has of a regional office in Bunbury and small business field offices in the Kimberley, Pilbara, Mid-West-Gascoyne, Goldfields-Esperance, Wheatbelt, South West and Great Southern.

In addition to Commercial Ready and EDI grants, AusIndustry last financial year has also awarded 13 companies with Commercialising Emerging Technologies grants valued at $804,000 and grants worth $942,718 to seven projects under the Australian Tourism Development program.

A further 10 WA projects received $3.1 million in grants under the Small Business Program.

State-based companies also have a strong profile as beneficiaries of AusIndustry’s entitlements programs, including the R&D Tax Concession (which supports around 700 companies investing nearly $1 billion in R&D annually), TRADEX, and the Enhanced Project By-Law Scheme (supporting projects with total capital expenditure of $50 billion).

Under the June round of funding, seven WA companies received more than $9.5 million in total.

At the time, the Industry, Tourism and Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said WA had taken the lion’s share of June’s innovation funding, which was a testament to the high-quality innovation taking place in the state.

In the June round, specialist engineering services company Hofmann Engineering Pty Ltd was awarded a $3.2 million Commercial Ready grant to commercialise a manufacturing process for use in producing large gear-driven transmission products.

Perth-based Benra Pty Ltd was also recently awarded a Commercial Ready grant, of $1.6 million, to conduct further research and development and to commercialise its translating bifocal contact lens.

AusIndustry works with a number of stakeholders in WA including IP Australia, Area Consultative Committees, the WA Department of Industry and Resources, Tourism Western Australia, the Small Business Development Corporation, Universities and chambers of commerce and industry.