Aussie manufacturers receive $7.1m in commercialisation grants

Fifteen Australian manufacturers have received a total of $7.1 million in commercialisation funding from the federal government to help them commercialise products and export them globally.

Under tranches two and three of the Australian Government’s $30 million Commercialisation Fund, 15 projects received backing, including a brain injury assessment device, portable x-ray imaging technology and a handheld on-farm analysis tool to check the nutritional values of produce.

Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Christian Porter said the Commercialisation Fund supports Australian manufacturers to take their valuable innovations through the commercialisation phase and unlock new economic opportunities both at home and abroad.

“These grants will enable companies to undertake further research and development activities, improve engineering and design elements and invest in new technologies so they can scale up operations and bring their products to market,” Minister Porter said.

“By providing the right economic conditions for manufacturers to secure further investment opportunities and realise their potential, the Government is also building Australia’s global competitiveness and creating new local jobs,” he said.

Related: New $800m grants program to bolster manufacturing industry

Grants were between $100,000 and $1 million, with funding to make up no more than 50 per-cent of total project costs.

Funded projects include:

Rapid Phenotyping Pty Ltd (Newcastle, NSW), which has received $500,938 for its digital hand-held device and software platform that helps farmers to perform on-farm lab testing of the nutritional content and quality of their produce.

HeadsafeIP Pty Ltd (Bronte, NSW), who will use their $447,500 funding to further develop its Nurochek Pro brain injury assessment device for US and Australian markets and investigate the potential for mobile applications.

Additive Assurance Pty Ltd (Southbank, VIC), who plans to use their $546,000 funding to design a quality assurance system for additive manufacturing which uses long exposure imaging to identify defects during the 3D printing process, ensuring products meet regulatory standards and reducing the waste of raw materials.

Micro-X Ltd (Tonsley, SA), which has received $575,620 to help launch its mobile and digital x-ray imaging technology system into the Australian veterinarian industry to enable further development and expansion of the product. The company will also investigate human imaging capability.

Energy Renaissance Pty Limited (Tomago, NSW) was also a recipient, receiving $525,072 to scale up production of its lithium-ion battery energy storage system (‘BESS’) technology for use in hot-climate markets such as Australian and Asia.

ActionLaser Pty Ltd (Hornsby, NSW) will be using their $558,500 funding to implement new manufacturing technology to produce its ‘MeltFilter’ discs for use in polymer and plastic recycling machines.

The fund is administered by the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC), in collaboration with the five other Industry Growth Centres: AustCyber; Food Innovation Australia Ltd (FIAL); MTPConnect; METS Ignited; National Energy Resources Australia (NERA); and the CSIRO.

Source: Minister for Industry, Science and Technology media release