There are over 500 grants available in Australia at the Federal, State and Regional level.

The most notable aspect of these grants is that they are mostly small, competitive and discretionary. Unlike the certainty of the R&D Tax Incentive or the Export Market Development Grant, these grants typically require a panel to select a handful of ‘winners’ from a very large number of applicants. Many grants have less than 5% success rate.

Moreover, these grants are generally not open all the time – they go through rounds of application and assessment. So grants are sought based on a combination of the company’s need and the grant availability.

When talking about these other grants, it is important to understand that these are virtually all based on some new project that you have on the drawing board, but for which you need support to get it over the line. That project would be about doing something not part of the ordinary course of business, that would generate new revenues and create new jobs (the more the better).

Assessment of virtually any grant is then based around the core principles of:
• New (taxpayer) revenue generated;
• New jobs created (especially regional jobs);
• National benefit / societal benefit;
• The proponents track record of delivering projects; AND
• The need for the money – why the company can’t just fund the project itself?

So our starting point for any grant discussion is to talk about the project that is ‘sitting on the launchpad, waiting for fuel’, and would launch in around 6 months if that ‘fuel’ became available. For that project, we would take a very similar approach to Government as we would to any investor or financier. We would establish a project proposal (ideally a business plan) with a clearly modelled and articulated financial proposition, and with core attention to the employment outcomes that would be generated by the project.

We would be happy to arrange an obligation free discussion about your company’s plans and projects and help find suitable grants for you. Contact us now to find out more. (Ph: 02 9241 5900)