Government funding boosts advanced manufacturing

The federal government says that its $400 million Industry Growth Program (IGP) is growing Australian manufacturing, with more than $26 million delivered across 20 businesses so far.

Recipients spanning robotics, medical manufacturing, farming, defence and mining have been the first to receive funding since the program commenced.

Participants are supported with a specialised Advisory Service in priority areas of the National Reconstruction Fund, with the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) the latest business to provide expert sector-specific advice.

Awarded $1.9 million to join the Industry Partner Organisation (IPO), AMGC will focus on developing IGP recipients across the transport, defence and value-add to resources sectors. AusBiotech has also received $2 million to deliver a commercialisation advisory support service for Australian biotech and medtech companies that are part of the IGP.

“I’m pleased to see AMGC and AusBiotech join the IGP stable of Industry Partner Organisations, with their expertise supporting Aussie manufacturers to realise their potential,” said Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic. “We’re serious about backing local know-how; that’s why we’re ensuring growing businesses have the support they need to increase our manufacturing capability and keep more jobs here in Australia.”

Successful IGP grant recipients to date are:

• Allume Energy: $3.77 million in funding to expand its ‘behind the meter’ SolShare technology, which helps people living in apartments to increase their solar use and reduce power.
• Harvest B: $2.2 million to develop its gluten-free Australian faba bean plant protein alternative to meat products.
• Incisive Technologies: $2.1 million to develop its new dental paint, BlueCheck, for the early detection of oral disease that affects 90% of the world’s population.
• GB Operations: $1.6 million to develop GreaseBoss, a grease management system for heavy mobile equipment users across mining, civil earthworks, forestry and cropping agriculture sectors.
• DFDU: $1.2 million to develop its processes and recipes for the manufacture of plant-dairy hybrid cheeses, creams and dips for food manufacturers, quick-service restaurants, home delivery meal kits and export markets.
• Cyborg Dynamics Engineering: $597,000 to further develop a robotics industrial-grade autonomy stack for military, conservation and firefighting use cases.
• Tetrisize Oceania: $200,000 in funding to build and test a new conveyor system technology and plan for local manufacturing and assembly.
• Seed Terminator: $3.1 million to scale up technology that enables the mechanical destruction of weed seeds during harvesting.
• Cauldron Molecules: $4.3 million to support world-first, fully automated hyper-fermentation technology to make food, animal feed, fibre and fuel.
• Li–S Energy: $1.7 million to support its high-tolerance lithium foil battery manufacturing process to produce next-generation, ultra-light batteries.
• Electrogenics Laboratories: $1 million for its MOSkin patient radiation dose measurement system to reduce exposure risk during radiotherapy treatments.
• Brandsec: $231,000 for its Unphish software tool that can remove malicious phishing content from the internet, including from compromised websites and fake social media accounts.
• Forager Automation: $157,943 for the development of its robotic blueberry picking device that will tackle labour costs and increase yield efficiency for farmers.
• Seastock: $136,000 to develop an innovative solution which lowers the environmental impact of supply chains by using ingredients from sustainably produced seaweed.
• Neo-Bionica: $250,000 to improve the efficiency of prototyping technology for first-in-human trials for the neurotech industry.
• Stralis Aircraft: $250,000 to advance work on a lightweight, turbocharged, high-temperature PEM fuel cell system to reduce aircraft operating costs.
• Acacia Systems: $1.5 million to develop technology that allows remote vehicles to provide persistent undersea surveillance to protect maritime approaches from subsurface threats.
• Kandui Technologies: $942,494 for the development of a crystalline silica-free product as a safe, Australian-made alternative for benchtops and surfaces.
• Turquoise Group: $949,500 to complete an extensive nine-month test program to build the company’s first commercial-scale plant to convert methane gas into two valuable products — graphene carbon powder and hydrogen gas — through a zero emission process.
• Userdoc: $250,000 to further develop an AI-powered software requirements platform for the global software development market.
   

IGP grants are provided through two streams.

Early-Stage Commercialisation grants provide matched grant funding from $50,000 to $250,000 to help establish the commercial viability of an innovative product, process or service.

Commercialisation and Growth grants provide matched grant funding from $100,000 to $5 million to help push ideas from prototyping through to market readiness stages. Grants will help develop strategies for entry to market and scaling up into national and international markets.

The program provides the Advisory Service to eligible businesses and is open year-round. Following the service, businesses may choose to apply for matched grant funding.

For more information, including eligibility, visit business.gov.au/igprecipients.

Image credit: iStock.com/Traimak_Ivan