Queensland awards $5.5 million in grants to boost SME innovation

The Queensland government’s Advance Queensland initiative has allocated over $5.5 million in grants to 56 local SMEs. These funds aim to aid in the development and commercialisation of new and innovative products and services.

The funding is split between two programs: the Ignite Ideas Fund and the new Ignite Spark Program. The Ideas Fund offers grants of up to $200,000 and assists businesses in bringing viable products to the market. The Spark Program offers grants of up to $75,000 and supports businesses in advancing their products from prototype to being more market-ready.

The Queensland Minister for Science and Innovation, Leanne Linard, highlighted the significance of these programs in empowering Queensland’s innovative enterprises.

“The Ignite program already supports hundreds of jobs across Queensland and represents a significant investment in the State’s entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Minister Laird said.

“The Miles Government celebrates these innovators and is proud to support them in further developing their products and then commercialising them.

“By supporting innovative initiatives we’re working together to create a better life for all Queenslanders and showcasing our potential as a global leader in the highly competitive innovation economy.”

Under the Ignite Ideas Fund, 26 businesses will share $3.3 million in grants. Projects range from the development of a mobile app called ‘You After X,’ designed to support women navigating separation or divorce, to ‘Clean&Recover,’ a project aimed at transforming waste streams into productive assets for mining companies.

The inaugural round of the Ignite Spark Program will see 30 enterprises benefit from $2.2 million in funding. Among the projects supported is Rainstick — an agtech company that is developing technology that mimics the effect of lightning and thunderstorms to germinate seeds, build more resilient crops, and increase food production.

“We are using the grant fund to develop Rainstick Recipes for treatments of seeds,” co-founder, Darryl Lyons, said to SmartCompany.

Andrew Pedley, co-founder and CEO of Carbonaught – a startup that focuses on carbon removal and sustainable agriculture – said he was excited about the funding and the validation it brought to the business.

“We have a very different angle on how low-emission agriculture should be done at scale,” Pedley said to SmartCompany.

“The recognition from the Queensland government, combined with our recent US government grant with UC Davis is another positive signal for both us and our partner farmers. This will help drive adoption more broadly into the industry both here and overseas.”

Applications for the next funding rounds for both programs are currently open.