Applications open this month for $150 million in AEA grants as 39 funded projects announced

The next round of Australia’s Economic Accelerator Ignite and Innovate grants will open on July 23, “making an additional $150 million available” to university projects moving research towards commercialisation, the federal government has announced.

The grants administered by AEA support researcher-led projects that are at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3 – 5 (via Ignite) or 5 – 7 (Innovate.) Projects must align with the federal government’s seven priority areas.

Also announced on Friday were the winners of 39 grants to Innovate projects, including:

• $2,159,623 to Swinburne University for a project titled “Scaling Up Sovereign Powder Manufacturing of Critical Materials Through Sustainable Advanced Materials Innovation”;
• $2,500,000 to La Trobe University for “Sub-100 nm feature wafer-scale manufacturing for clinical scale biophotonics”;
• $3,852,685 to Deakin University for “Sovereign sodium-ion battery manufacturing”; and
• $4,991,377 to UNSW for “Facile water-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling for innovative packaging”.

(A full list can be seen here.)

Innovate grants offer as much as $5 million support for a maximum period of 24 months, and Ignite grants up to $500,000 for projects running up to 12 months. 

According to a statement from education minister Jason Clare on Friday, approximately $178 million has been awarded to date through AEA Seed, Ignite and Innovate grants. 

Another $150 million will be made available through the soon-to-open round of Ignite and Innovate grants.

Clare said: “These investments allow our world-class universities and researchers to work on game-changing projects that are good for our economy and good for Australia.”

More about the program is available here.

Picture: credit AEA

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