Building industrial capability to meet Defence priorities
This program is open for applications throughout the year. The assessment panel assess batched applications regularly throughout the year. Below are the dates:
- Batch 3 – all grant applications received from 1 February to 30 April 2023.
- Batch 4 – all grant applications received from 1 May to 31 July 2023.
- Batch 5 – all grant applications received from 1 August to 31 October 2023.
Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grant
What do you get?
A grant of $50,000 to $1 million for up to 50% of the cost of a project that builds capabilities aligned with Defence’s Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities. The maximum grant period is 30 months.
Grant funding is capped at $3 million in a 3-year period per recipient.
Who is this for?
Small to medium sized businesses with an Australian business number (ABN). The business must be a company incorporated in Australia or and incorporated trustee on behalf of a trust.
How it works
You need to contribute 50% of the eligible project value.
Project activities can include:
- buying, leasing, constructing, installing or commissioning of capital equipment including specialist software to enhance cyber security
As they relate to the above activities, this can also include:
- design, engineering and commissioning activities
- workforce training and accreditations.
The Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities are described on the Department of Defence websitewhich includes a SICP Fact Sheet listing the priorities. Defence reviews the priorities periodically and publishes updates on its website.
Eligibility
What are the eligibility criteria?
To be eligible your business must:
- have fewer than 200 employees
- have an Australian business number (ABN)
- be a company incorporated in Australia or be an incorporated trustee on behalf of a trust
Also, you must:
- provide evidence from your Board (or Chief Executive Officer or equivalent if there is no board) that the project is supported, and that you can complete the project and meet the costs of the project not covered by grant funding
- provide an external accountant declaration form that confirms you can fund your share of the project costs
Who is excluded?
You are not eligible to apply if you are:
- an individual
- a partnership
- a trust (but an incorporated trustee may apply on behalf of a trust)
- a government body at any level (including government business enterprise)
Applying
Before you apply
Read the grant opportunity guidelines. The guidelines provide detailed information on the:
- grant opportunity, including grant objectives
- eligibility and merit criteria
- assessment processes
- reporting and acquittal requirements
- review mechanisms
Check if you’re ready to apply for a grant
Finding a suitable grant opportunity is just the start of the process to get funding. The application process can take time and effort. Understanding the entire process will help you be grant ready and may improve your chances of getting funding.
Use our checklist to find out what it takes to apply for a grant.
Apply for a Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grant
Make sure you:
- meet the eligibility criteria
- have evidence that your Board or Chief Executive Officer supports the project and the business can complete it
- have an external accountant declaration confirming that your business can fund its share of the costs
To be competitive you must score highly against all of the merit criteria:
- Merit criterion 1: The extent to which your project will help you contribute to Defence's Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities (50 points).
- Merit criterion 2: Your capacity, capability and resources to deliver the project (30 points).
- Merit criterion 3: The impact of grant funding (20 points).
Applications are batched and assessed regularly.
We assess your application against the eligibility criteria and then against the assessment criteria. Only eligible applications will proceed to the assessment stage.
We refer eligible applications to an assessment panel made up of representatives from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources and the Department of Defence. The panel may also seek additional advice from independent technical experts.
When assessing whether the application represents value with relevant money, the panel will have regard to:
- the overall objective/s to be achieved
- the value of the grant sought
- the extent to which the application demonstrates that funding will assist to meeting the proposal outcomes/ objectives.
The panel will assess your application against the assessment criteria and compare it to other eligible applications within the batches before recommending which projects to fund.
To recommend an application for funding it must score highly against each assessment criterion. While we assess all applications against the same assessment criteria, we will score your application relative to the project size, complexity and grant amount requested. The evidence you provide to support your application should be proportional to the size and complexity of your project.
If the selection process identifies unintentional errors in your application, we may contact you to correct or clarify the errors, but you cannot make any material alteration or addition.
The program delegate will make the final decision.
If you are unsuccessful, we will notify you in writing and give you an opportunity to discuss the outcome with us.
We cannot review decisions.
We will email you and include in the email any specific conditions attached to the grant.
Successful applicants must enter into a grant agreement with the Commonwealth. The grant agreement will specify the:
- reporting requirements
- payment schedule
- milestones to receive payments
As part of the grant agreement your business must apply for membership of the Defence Industry Security Program (or be an existing member of the program).
We'll make an initial payment on execution of the grant agreement. We'll make subsequent payments in arrears as you achieve milestones, based on your actual eligible expenditure. Payments are subject to satisfactory progress on the project.
We set aside 10% of the total grant funding for the final payment. We'll pay this when you submit a satisfactory end of project report demonstrating that you have completed any outstanding obligations for the project.
Grant funds will be paid into your nominated bank account.
Need help?
Let us answer your question via phone, email or live chat. And if we can't help, we'll put you in touch with someone who can.
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Open Hours:
Monday – Friday, 8am – 8pm across Australia
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