Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grant

The objective of the Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority grant is to support Australian SMEs to supply capabilities that are most critical to Defence. The Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grants will help Australian SMEs to invest in projects that build capabilities aligned with Defence’s stated Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities.

The intended outcome of the grant is to grow a robust and resilient Australian SME industrial base capable of providing a significant contribution to Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities.

To be eligible you must:

• be an SME with less than 200 employees as defined in the Glossary.
• have an Australian Business Number (ABN)

and be one of the following entities:

• an entity, incorporated in Australia
• an incorporated trustee on behalf of a trust.

Joint applications are acceptable, provided you have a lead organisation who is the main driver of the project and is eligible to apply.

Additional eligibility requirements include applications:

• where you provide evidence from your board (or chief executive officer or equivalent if there is no board) that the project is supported, and that you can complete the project and meet the costs of the project not covered by grant funding
• where you provide evidence of how you will provide your share of project costs such as an accountant declaration that confirms you can fund your share of the project costs, including any ineligible expenditure. An accountant declaration template is available on business.gov.au and GrantConnect. If you do not use this template, you must include equivalent information and the declaration in your own document.

Eligibility criteria cannot be waived under any circumstances.

You are not eligible to apply if you are:

• an organisation, or your project partner is an organisation, included on the National Redress Scheme’s website on the list of ‘Institutions that have not joined or signified their intent to join the Scheme’
• an employer of 100 or more employees that has not complied with the Workplace Gender Equality Act (2012).
• an individual
• partnership
• trust (however, an incorporated trustee may apply on behalf of a trust)
• a Commonwealth, State, Territory or local government body (including government business enterprises).

See the guidelines for full details of eligible and ineligible organisations.

To be eligible for funding, proposed projects must:

• include eligible activities (refer to section 5.2) and eligible expenditure (refer to section 5.3)
• have at least $100,000 in eligible expenditure
• occur within Australia.

See the guidelines for full details of eligible projects.

Eligible activities must directly relate to:

• buying, leasing, constructing, installing or commissioning of capital equipment including specialist software to enhance cyber security

As they relate to the above activities, this may also include:

• design, engineering and commissioning activities
• workforce training and accreditations

The Program Delegate may also approve other activities.

See the guidelines for full details of eligible and ineligible activities.

You can only spend grant funds on eligible expenditure you have incurred on an agreed project as defined in your grant agreement.

The eligible and ineligible expenditure may be updated from time to time. If your application is successful, the version in place when you submitted your application applies to your project.

If your application is successful, you may be asked to verify project costs provided in your application. You may need to provide evidence such as quotes for major costs.

Not all expenditure on your project may be eligible for grant funding. The Program Delegate (who is the senior responsible officer within the department with responsibility for the program) makes the final decision on what is eligible expenditure and may give additional guidance on eligible expenditure if required.

To be eligible, expenditure must:

• be a direct cost of the project
• be incurred by you for required project audit activities.

You must incur the project expenditure between the project start and end date for it to be eligible unless stated otherwise.

You may elect to commence your project from the date we notify you that your application is successful. We are not responsible for any expenditure you incur until a grant agreement is executed.

The Commonwealth will not be liable, and should not be held out as being liable, for any activities undertaken before the grant agreement is executed.

See the guidelines for full details of eligible and ineligible expenditure.

You must provide the following documents with your application:

• project budget
• accountant declaration
• evidence of funding strategy, e.g. financial statements, loan agreements, cash flow documents
• evidence of support from the board, CEO or equivalent
• trust deed (where applicable).

You must attach supporting documentation in line with the instructions provided in the form. You should only attach requested documents. The total of all attachments cannot exceed 20MB. Information in attachments that are not requested will not be considered.

See the guidelines for full details of information requirements.

Applications are submitted online via portal.business.gov.au.

Book a no obligation discovery session with GrantHelper to explore your alignment with this grant and how we can assist you to increase your chances of success.