- Government provides
record amount of grant funds to 49 innovators
- $3.56 million
awarded via Innovation Booster and Commercialisation Bridge Grants
- More than 40 per
cent of grant recipients have female founders
A northern suburbs business specialising in using seaweed to manufacture
an alternative to plastic is one of 49 local innovators to share in a record $3.56
million of grants from the Cook Government.
Innovation and Digital Economy Minister Stephen Dawson Minister said the
multimillion windfall for these leading local innovative businesses was being
made through the Government's popular Innovation Booster Grant (IBG) and the new
Commercialisation Bridge Grant (CBG) programs.
Successful grant recipients include northern suburbs company Uluu, which
is based in the Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre in Watermans Bay. The
business is adopting an in-house manufacturing process to use seaweed to make a
range of alternative plastic products, including containers and textiles.
The funding has been awarded to a wide range of novel innovators
including one business seeking to develop an AI textile sorting machine, another
that is developing a system to enable people with mobility issues to access
light aircraft and another that is producing high-protein livestock feed all year-round.
Of the 49 recipients, 21 have female founders,
seven are based in regional Western Australia and two are First Nations
businesses, reflecting the strong diversity of Western Australia's innovation
ecosystem.
The IBG has been awarded to 38 local companies with each receiving up to
$40,000 to advance their ideas. This latest grant allocation follows the announcement
of 26 local recipients earlier this year, who received around $1 million in
funding.
In its first ever round, the CBG has been awarded to 11 local companies
with each receiving up to $200,000 in matched funding to assist with bridging
the gap between commercialised innovation and a scalable business.
The 38 IBGs will
receive $1,480,645 in funding, with 36 being funded by the New Industries Fund
(NIF), the 11 CBGs will receive $2,076,590 in funding, with nine funded by the NIF.
In line with the Cook Government's Health and
Medical Life Sciences Industry Strategy, the remaining two IBG and two CBG
recipients will be supported through Health and Medical Life Sciences funding.
Applications remain open for both programs, all year round.
For more information see: https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/department-of-jobs-tourism-science-and-innovation/new-industries-fund-innovation-booster-grant and https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/department-of-jobs-tourism-science-and-innovation/new-industries-fund-commercialisation-bridge-grant
Comments attributed to Innovation
and the Digital Economy Minister Stephen Dawson:
"We have an amazing and talented cohort of local innovators who are
doing incredible things and the Cook Government is committed to assisting WA's innovation
ecosystem to thrive and prosper.
"We are targeting innovation growth with funding support through both
the Innovation Booster and Commercialisation Bridge Grants scheme to provide
this assistance at a variety of different stages.
"We want local innovators to build their businesses here in WA where
they can continue to generate connections and develop their businesses.
"Congratulations to all 49 recipients of this round of IBG and CBGs. I
am looking forward to seeing the leaps of progress that each of them will make
with this vital early-stage and scale up funding."
List of Innovation Booster
Grant recipients
List of Commercialisation
Bridge Grant recipients
