Smart Cities and Suburbs Program

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Smart Cities and Suburbs Program

The Smart Cities and Suburbs Program Round 2 provides local government agencies and bodies with grants of $250,000 to $5 million. The grants support projects that apply innovative technology-based solutions to urban challenges. The program aims improve the liveability, productivity and sustainability of Australian cities, suburbs and towns.

Closed

What do you get?

$250,000 to $5 million in matched funding.

Who is this for?

Local government agencies and bodies.

Eligibility

What are the eligibility criteria?

To be eligible you must:

be an Australian local government agency or body as defined in appendix A of the grant opportunity guidelines
have an Australian business number (ABN)

Your project

To be eligible, your project must include at least 1 partner organisation during the life of the project.

Projects must also involve the innovative application of knowledge, hardware or software either:

is new to the organisation, the local government area, city, region or country
delivers an outcome which has not previously been realised in your community

You must complete your project by 30 June 2020.

Applying

How do you apply?

Applications are closed.

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How do we assess your application?

We assess your application against the eligibility criteria. Only eligible applications will proceed to the merit assessment stage.

We then refer your application to an assessment committee that includes:

Australian Public Service officers with subject matter expertise
independent technical experts

This committee will make recommendations on which grants to approve. The Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities will make the final decision.

What are the merit criteria?

To be competitive you must score highly against all of the merit criteria.

Merit Criterion 1: The extent to which your project is innovative and uses smart technology and open data (30 points).
Merit Criterion 2: The scope of social, environmental and economic benefits your project will deliver (30 points).
Merit Criterion 3: The extent of the project’s community focus and impact on the liveability of the cities, suburbs and towns (20 points).
Merit Criterion 4: Your capacity, capability and resources to carry out the project (20 points).

What happens next?

If your application is successful, you’ll receive a written offer.

Successful applicants must enter into a grant agreement with the Commonwealth. The grant agreement will specify the reporting requirements, payment schedule and milestones necessary to receive payments.

We’ll make the first payment when the grant agreement is executed. We’ll make subsequent payments in arrears based on your achievement of activities and your eligible expenditure. We set aside a minimum of 10% of the total grant funding for the final payment. We’ll pay this when you submit a satisfactory final report.

We’ll make payments by direct credit into your nominated bank account.

If you’re unsuccessful, we’ll notify you in writing and give you the chance to discuss the outcome with us.

Need help?

13 28 46

Monday – Friday, 8am – 8pm across Australia

View the Smart Cities and Suburbs Program grant recipients.

Key documents

Solve urban challenges and improve local community liveability

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