Accelerating Commercialisation Grant

Accelerating Commercialisation is one of the opportunities available under the Entrepreneurs’ Programme, which aims to connect small and medium sized businesses with the capabilities and networks they need to grow, innovate and commercialise in Australian markets and/or markets in other countries.

To be eligible you must be:

• non-tax-exempt
• registered for GST

and be one of the following entities:

• a company incorporated in Australia and a trading corporation, where your trading activities:
• form a sufficiently significant proportion of the corporation’s overall activities as to merit it being described as a trading corporation
• are a substantial and not merely peripheral activity of the corporation
• a Research Commercialisation Entity or Eligible Partner Entity (as defined in section 14 of the guidelines).

Applications will only be accepted if you:

• have received Commercialisation Guidance advice and recommendations regarding the suitability of your project for an Accelerating Commercialisation Grant
• have the ownership, access or beneficial use of any intellectual property you need to undertake the commercialisation project
• provide evidence of your ability to fund at least 50 per cent of eligible project expenditure, such as funding strategy and a bank statement or loan agreement
• provide an Accountant Declaration that confirms your ability to fund the project
• have a combined annual turnover of less than $20 million for each of the three financial years prior to the lodgement of the application (unless you are controlled by a Publicly Funded Research Organisation or Eligible Partner Entity, in which case you must have annual turnover in isolation of less than $20 million for each of the three financial years prior to lodgement of the application).

You are not eligible to apply if you are:

• an individual
• a partnership
• an unincorporated association
• a trust (however, an incorporated trustee may apply on behalf of a trust)
• a Commonwealth, State, Territory or local government body (including government business enterprises)
• a non-corporate Commonwealth entity.

Eligible projects

Applications will only be accepted if you:

• have received Commercialisation Guidance advice and recommendations regarding the suitability of your project for an Accelerating Commercialisation Grant
• have the ownership, access or beneficial use of any intellectual property you need to undertake the commercialisation project
• provide evidence of your ability to fund at least 50 per cent of eligible project expenditure, such as funding strategy and a bank statement or loan agreement
• provide an Accountant Declaration that confirms your ability to fund the project
• have a combined annual turnover of less than $20 million for each of the three financial years prior to the lodgement of the application (unless you are controlled by a Publicly Funded Research Organisation or Eligible Partner Entity, in which case you must have annual turnover in isolation of less than $20 million for each of the three financial years prior to lodgement of the application).

Your project will be a novel product, process, or service, significantly different to any previous innovation that offers value and solutions to the market or industry it will be traded in.

Your novel project will need to demonstrate:

• scalability, offering a one to many solution if it is a service
• technical feasibility, with research and development for your working prototype
• market acceptance, but not had its first sales
• intent for trade within Australia and/or overseas markets
• ability to rapidly increase trade and make sales across multiple markets
• ownership, access to or beneficial use of, any existing intellectual property.

Eligible activities must be directly related to the commercialisation of a novel product, process or service and can include:

• proving commercial viability of a novel product, process or service to a customer, investor or strategic partner
• making the first sales^* of the novel product, process or service in Australia or overseas
• engaging a senior experienced executive to fill a key gap in the management team, which is essential to achieving your commercialisation outcomes.
• completing development of a novel product, process or service
• engaging external professionals, for example to confirm the market opportunity, develop the business model, identify potential partners, develop an IP strategy, raise capital or prepare an Information Memorandum

Ineligible activities include:

• basic research or technical experiments (R&D projects)
• scaling production and/or marketing activities in markets where you have already made your first sales^* of the novel product, process or service
• developing a novel product, process or service for internal use only (i.e. not for sale),
• commercialising the next version or iteration of an existing product, process or service where updates and changes are minor and therefore does not qualify as a novel product, process or service.

^* First sales means that a company is able to demonstrate, consistent with its value proposition, market acceptance of its novel product, process or service in its key target market(s).

See Appendix A of the guidelines for full information regarding eligible expenditure.

Project expenditure falls under the following categories:

• Labour expenditure
• Contract expenditure
• Plant expenditure
• State-of-the-art plant or pilot manufacturing plant expenditure
• Prototype expenditure
• Other expenditure.

A brief explanation of each category follows – refer Appendix A of the guidelines for full information

Labour expenditure

• direct labour costs of employees you directly employ on the core elements of the project, with the maximum salary for an employee, director or shareholder, including packaged components, of $175,000 per financial year or $250,000 per financial year for an Experienced Executive
• on-costs up to an additional 40 per cent of eligible salary costs
• costs for technical, but not administrative, project management activities limited to 10 per cent of the total amount of eligible labour expenditure claimed

Contract expenditure

• agreed project activities that you contract others to do, including contracting another organisation or an individual who is not an employee but engaged under a separate contract

Plant expenditure

• depreciation of newly purchased and pre-existing purchased plant
• hired, rented, or leased plant where you use the plant for the project (calculated by the number of payment periods multiplied by the period hiring fee)
• depreciation of constructed plant
• running costs, which must be readily verifiable and may include items such as rent, light and power, and repairs and maintenance

State-of-the-art plant or pilot manufacturing plant expenditure

• the full cost (rather than depreciation cost only) of establishing a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant (SMP) or pilot manufacturing plant (PMP), subject to conditions detailed in Appendix A of the guidelines
• running costs once fully completed, which must be readily verifiable and may include items such as rent, light and power, and repairs and maintenance

Prototype expenditure

• construction and use of the prototype in the agreed project where it contributes directly to proving the commercial viability of a novel product, process or service
• running costs once fully completed, which must be readily verifiable and may include items such as rent, light and power, and repairs and maintenance

Other expenditure

Travel and overseas expenditure may include:

• domestic travel limited to the reasonable cost of accommodation (room cost only) and transportation (air transport limited to economy class) required to conduct agreed project and collaboration activities in Australia by the participant’s staff, contractors or subcontractors
• overseas travel limited to the reasonable cost of accommodation (room cost only) and transportation (air transport limited to economy class) required in cases where the overseas travel is material to the conduct of the project in Australia
• types of expenditure directly related to such activities, including on-costs, travel and depreciation of plant
• plant and other goods, including goods purchased for inclusion in a prototype, that are purchased overseas are not necessarily treated as overseas expenditure

Business development activities may include:

• labour expenditure for a salesperson or a business development manager
• labour expenditure or legal costs in regard to setting up licensing, distribution or manufacturing agreements
• contractor’s fees for developing a capital plan and/or an investment proposal in order to secure continuing funding for the project beyond the grant period
• labour expenditure and other costs in relation to developing a partnership or collaboration with another business or organisation to increase the chances of commercial success for the project
• labour expenditure and other costs in relation to obtaining regulation and standards compliance, such as certification or accreditation, in the market(s) relevant to the project
• labour expenditure and travel costs to attend a trade show (as either exhibitor or visitor to the trade show)
• labour expenditure, travel and other costs to participate in roadshows organised by Accelerating Commercialisation

Other eligible expenditure may include:

• staff training that directly supports the achievement of project outcomes
• costs you incur in order to obtain planning, environmental or other regulatory approvals during the project period, excluding fees paid to the Commonwealth, state, territory and local governments
• product liability insurance in relation to an agreed project—where this insurance is a normal and essential cost of undertaking the project.
• IP protection expenditure – reasonable costs that protect IP that is related to the agreed project and that the Participant does or will directly own are eligible expenditure.
• acquisition of new and leading-edge technology where subsequent adaptation of that technology will contribute directly to completion of the agreed project
• cost of product/process design activities are eligible where they relate to turning the prototype of a working product or process into a commercially viable design
• cost of trial production runs to demonstrate commercial viability including validation, establishing efficacy and demonstration of evidence of the stability or reproducibility of processes, and production of product necessary to achieve first sales
• quality control activities necessary for the commercialisation of the novel product, process or service
• preparation of an audit certificate, restricted to a maximum of one per cent of total eligible expenditure on the agreed project, unless otherwise agreed to by the program delegate

Examples of ineligible expenditure include:

• full scale production and inventory costs where the project has already achieved first sales
• all forms of advertising and the production of promotional material (including web sites and apps whose primary purpose is advertising or promotion)
• establishing general infrastructure or obtaining resources used on the project—such as interest on loans, job advertising and recruiting, and transporting goods to be used on the project
• activities, equipment or supplies that are already being supported through other sources
• costs incurred prior to us notifying you that the application is eligible and complete
• financing costs, including interest
• capital expenditure for the purchase of assets such as office furniture and equipment, motor vehicles, computers, printers or photocopiers and the construction, renovation or extension of facilities such as buildings and laboratories
• costs involved in the purchase or upgrade/hire of software (including user licences) and ICT hardware (unless it directly relates to the project)
• costs such as rental, renovations and utilities
• non-project-related staff training and development costs
• directors and officers’ insurance
• insurance costs (the participants must effect and maintain adequate insurance or similar coverage for any liability arising as a result of its participation in funded activities)
• debt financing
• costs related to obtaining resources used on the project, including interest on loans, job advertising and recruiting, and contract negotiations
• depreciation of plant and equipment beyond the life of the project
• maintenance costs
• costs of manufacturing production inputs
• routine operational expenses, including communications, accommodation, office computing facilities, printing and stationery, postage, legal and accounting fees and bank charges
• costs related to preparing the grant application, preparing any project reports (except costs of independent audit reports we require) and preparing any project variation requests
• defending intellectual property rights
• prospecting, exploring or drilling for minerals, petroleum or natural gas for the purpose of discovering deposits, determining more precisely the location of deposits or determining the size or quality of deposits
• making donations/sponsorships/gifts
• opportunity costs relating to forgone production and production downtime arising from the allocation of resources to the agreed grant project
• any activity related to the reproduction of a commercial product or process by a physical examination of an existing system or from plans, blueprints, detailed specifications or publicly available information
• acquisition, leasing, depreciation of or development of land and buildings (unless otherwise noted in the eligible expenditure guidelines).
• travel or overseas costs that exceed 10 per cent of total project costs except where otherwise approved by the program delegate

Step 1 – EOI

Does not require any additional supporting information to be attached.

Step 2 – detailed application

You must provide the following supporting documentation with your application:

• evidence of funding strategy that indicates matched funding is in place or has been committed to
• detailed project budget
• market need validation
• a detailed project plan (with detailed activities, milestones),
• a detailed cashflow,
• evidence of appropriate IP strategy (which may include IP protection, a licencing agreement) or reliance on a trade secret
• evidence to support your claims against assessment criteria responses
• explanation of company group structure
• team profiles
• accountant declaration
• letters of support or endorsement
• detailed competitor analysis
• detailed risk management plan
• financial reports
• revenue modelling and projected forecast earnings
• trust deed (where applicable)
• Other attachments as directed by the commercialisation advisor

You may also provide other attachments to support your claims against the assessment criteria relative to the project size, complexity and grant amount requested.

A lot of time is required to formulate a comprehensive and complete detailed AC submission

The process of applying for an Accelerating Commercialisation Grant is 2 staged.

Step 1: lodge an Expression of Interest (EOI)

Step 2: complete and submit a detailed application

Allow a minimum of 6 months to reach an outcome on support.

Book a no obligation discovery session with GrantHelper to increase your chances of success.