Funding to invest in capabilities to address supply chain vulnerabilities

You are not eligible to apply if you are:

• an organisation, or your project partner is an organisation, included on the National Redress Scheme’s list of ‘Institutions that have not joined or signified their intent to join the Scheme’
• an organisation or your project partner is an organisation that has been named by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency as an organisation that has not complied with Workplace Gender Equality Act (2012).
• income-tax-exempt
• an individual
• a partnership
• an unincorporated entity
• any organisation not included in section 4.1 of the guidelines
• a trust (however, an incorporated trustee may apply on behalf of a trust)
• a Commonwealth, State, Territory or local government body (including government business enterprises)
• a non-corporate Commonwealth entity.

Before you apply, you need to identify all eligible project expenditure, and any ineligible expenditure. Only eligible project expenditure can be funded under the SCRI program.

You can apply for a SCRI grant of up to 50% of eligible project expenditure, to a maximum grant amount of $2 million.

You will need to fund all remaining eligible project expenditure (your contribution) and ineligible expenditure. Your contribution to eligible project expenditure must be cash.

Funding from State, Territory or local governments

You can use State, Territory or local government grants to fund up to 25% of your contribution to eligible project expenditure.

In addition, concessional loans from State, Territory or local governments are considered cash, and therefore can be used to fund all or part of your contribution. For example, if 10% of your contribution is funded by a State government grant, you could use State, Territory or local government concessional loans to fund all or part of the remaining 90%.

Other Commonwealth Government funding

Commonwealth Government funding sources, including Concessional loans and other grants, cannot form part of your contribution.

You cannot use more than one Commonwealth Government grant to fund the same eligible activities as part of your project. For example, if you are a recipient of a Manufacturing Modernisation Fund grant to purchase manufacturing plant and equipment, you cannot use a SCRI grant to purchase the same plant and equipment.

Example

A Company applies for a SCRI grant of $2 million (the maximum grant under the program) for a project with total eligible expenditure of $12 million. They need to fund the remaining $10 million of eligible expenditure (their contribution). The Company has secured $2.5 million of funding through a State government grant. This can form part of their contribution, as it is 25% of the required $10 million. The Company shows that they will fund the remaining $7.5 million of their contribution through capital raising of $7 million and a State Government concessional loan of $500,000. The Company has also identified approximately $3 million in ineligible expenditure associated with their project. They show that they will have sufficient cash flow to cover all ineligible expenditure.

Summary

Total Project eligible expenditure: $12 million

SCRI grant: $2 million

State Government grant: $2.5 million

Capital raising: $7 million

State Government concessional loan: $500,000

Project ineligible expenditure: $3 million (funded from Company cash flow)

You can still apply even if:

• your product isn't listed in the SMCP
• your business isn't operating within the identified categories.

Your project may involve the substitution of a listed product with an alternative that achieves the same result. However, such applications must demonstrate how the project addresses a supply chain vulnerability associated with the product categories identified in the SMCP. The onus is on you to provide the necessary substantiation in your application.

SCRI grants are not available for the telecommunications equipment supply chain.

Industry consultation to inform the SMCP determined that the telecommunications sector is resilient and SCRI intervention is not necessary. This resilience is driven by private sector measures including robust planning, built-in redundancies, sufficient inventory and safety stocks, substitution contingencies and flexibility to optimise or direct capacity toward critical activities.

You can apply for a SCRI grant even if you're not a manufacturing business. You will need to demonstrate that you are:

• an integral enabler and active contributor to the manufacturing supply chain for an identified product category in the SMCP
• addressing a vulnerability identified in the SMCP.

You can submit more than one application. However, each application:

• needs to be for a separate and unrelated project
• will be assessed on its own merit.

We know many businesses have concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on grant applications and grant management. When applying for a grant, consider timeframes and constraints that may impact grant activities due to COVID-19.

If COVID-19 has impacted your ability to meet the obligations of your grant agreement, to discuss your circumstances and how we can assist you, you should contact:

• your customer service manager
• an agent at our Contact Centre.

You can find further COVID-19 government financial assistance and support for Australian businesses on our coronavirus information and support for business page.

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

We refer your application to an independent committee of experts. The committee will assess your application against the assessment criteria and compare it to other eligible applications before providing advice on which projects to fund.

To be competitive you must score highly against all of the assessment criteria:

• Assessment criterion 1: Project alignment with the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (50 points).
• Assessment criterion 2: Capacity, capability and resources to deliver the project (30 points).
• Assessment criterion 3: Impact of the grant funding on your project (20 points).

The amount of detail and supporting evidence you provide in your application should be relative to the project size, complexity and grant amount requested. You should define, quantify and provide evidence to support your answers. The sample application form displays character limits.

The Minister will make the final decision.

If your application is successful, you will receive a written offer. If you are unsuccessful, you will be notified in writing and given the chance to discuss the outcome with us.

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 will make payments according to an agreed schedule set out in the grant agreement. Payments are subject to satisfactory progress on the project. Payments will be made by direct credit to a nominated bank account.