Grants & Assistance - What's Available to SME Businesses?

For SME business owners seeking a cash-injection to help build their product or service offering, tendering for Business Grants could be a simple, yet effective, solution to help in building your business.

There are a number of State & Federal grants readily available to small-to-medium businesses, intended to assist with creating business improvement and growth.

We’ve correlated a list of the various Grants available to SME businesses – helping you to select which is best appropriate for your business requirements.

1. R&D Tax Incentive Program

The R&D Tax Incentive Program provides a tax offset for some of a company’s cost of doing eligible research and development (R&D) activities by reducing its income tax liability.

• Tax offsets of 43.5% or 38.5% available for costs incurred on eligible activities – dependent on company’s annual aggregated turnover
• Applicants must have incurred an eligible R&D expenditure of at least $20,000

Eligible R&D expenditure can include - Salaries & Wages, Salaries & Wages on Cost, Overheads, Materials consumed during the course of undertaking Research & Development, Plant Usage, etc

Applications can be made at any time - via link.

2. Accelerating Commercialisation Program

The Accelerating Commercialisation Program provides businesses with access to expert advice and match funding up to $1 million to cover eligible commercialisation costs – helping to take novel products, processes, and services to market.

The Program offers:

The Accelerating Commercialisation program closed on 9 May 2023  - via link.

3. Ignite Ideas Fund

The Ignite Ideas Fund aims to enable start-up and SME businesses to take highly innovative new products, processes, or services that have reached minimum viable product stage or beyond, into the market for the first time or enter into new market-space.

Grants of up to $200,000 are available, with funding available under two Tiers:

The Ignite Ideas Fund has a two-stage application process, which we have highlighted below:

• Stage 1 – Expression of Interest – short application form open to submissions for 3 weeks
• Stage 2 – Full Application Invitation Round – full application form open to submissions from shortlisted applicants only for 3 weeks

Applications can be made at any time - via link.

4. Ignite Spark Program

The Ignite Spark Program aims to support Queensland-based small to medium sized innovation driven enterprises  with high-growth potential to progress the development of an innovative product or service closer to market. Funding of $50 000 to $75 000 (excluding GST) is available for projects with a duration of up to twelve months with a matched funding contribution from the applicant organisation.

The program has a two-staged applications process – an Expression of Interest application being the first stage followed by a Full Application stage for shortlisted Expression of Interest applicants

Applications can be submitted at any time - via link.

5. Business Growth Fund Program

The Business Growth Fund Program is a grant program which provides targeted assistance for small to medium businesses demonstrating high-growth and employment aspirations.

Funding of up to $50,000 may be provided for eligible businesses determined by an assessment panel, however successful applicants must provide a co-contribution of between 25%-50% of the total project cost.

To be eligible for this grant, the business must:

• have a minimum trading history of 3 years at the time of application
• have a minimum turnover of $500,000 for the last financial year
• have fewer than 50 employees at the time of applying for the grant
• Hold an ABN and be registered for GST
• Hold QLD Headquarters
• Have competitive opportunities in domestic and international markets
• Be experiencing growth and have clearly defined high-growth and employment opportunities in Queensland

Your business must have the potential for high-growth within the next 2 years. High-growth is generally considered to be a 20% increase in turnover or employment

Applications can be made at any time - via link.

6. Export Market Development Fund

The Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) is administered by AusTrade. If you intend to sell or market overseas, the Government aims to assist and encourage the promotion of your brand, product or service to the international market. It achieves this by reimbursing a percentage of your international marketing expenditure.

EMDG is an eligibility-based, demand-driven program. This means all eligible applicants receive a grant from the available funds. The grant amount will depend on:

• number of eligible applications in the round (referred to as demand)
• available program budget shared among all eligible applicants.

Applications can be made at any time - via link.

7. Small Business Technology Investment Boost

This initiative allows small businesses to claim a 20% bonus deduction on technology expenditure to help digitise their business.

To be eligible your business must:

• aggregated annual turnover must be less than $50 million for the income year in which you incur the expenditure
• expenditure must already be deductible for your business under taxation law
• be incurred between 7:30 pm AEDT 29 March 2022 and 30 June 2023
• If the expenditure is on a depreciating asset, the asset must be first used or installed ready for use for a taxable purpose by 30 June 2023.

Applications can be made at any time - via link.

For More Information

For more information on the available grants for your business or for assistance in helping prepare an application for submission, please contact the team at Archer Gowland on (07) 3002 2699.