$30 million in grants to be available for manufacturing commercialisation projects

The federal government has announced $30 million in funding to help manufacturers commercialise their ideas.

The new $30 million commercialisation fund will provide grants smaller than and complementary to the Modern Manufacturing Initiative program, with applications for the latter opening weekly and by “manufacturing priority” sectors. Grant applications for three MMI sectors have been opened so far.  

Commercialisation fund grants will support projects running over 18 months. These grants will be managed by the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre with input from the other federally-funded Growth Centres.

“For the past five years, AMGC has been working with our manufacturers to identify and support promising manufacturing projects. These projects have resulted in an uplift in jobs, skills and Australia’s global competitiveness and the latest round of funding will allow us to continue the good work,” said AMGC Managing Director Dr Jens Goennemann in a statement.

“This funding supports AMGC’s vision to transform Australian manufacturing to be internationally competitive, dynamic and thriving, with advanced capabilities and skills at its core – in short, we want to help Australia move from being a lucky country to a smart one.”

Federal industry minister Karen Andrews (pictured) said that her government was “positioning Australia’s manufacturing industry at the cutting edge of innovation and this fund will help bring together the best of research and manufacturing capability to generate commercial outcomes.”

Both MMI and the new commercialisation fund provide dollar-matched support for projects, with grants between $1 to $20 million, and $100,000 to $1 million respectively. 

The priority sectors are Resources Technology & Critical Minerals Processing, Food & Beverage, Medical Products, Recycling & Clean Energy, Defence, and Space.

Grants applications will be open today for the first $20 million allocated through the $30 million program, with the second $10 million coming later.

Picture: The Australian

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