Grants to boost participation of girls and women in STEM and entrepreneurship

To be eligible your project must:

• include eligible activities and expenditure
• have at least $5000 in total eligible expenditure
• take no longer than 24 months to complete
• address discrimination against or inequality for girls and women in STEM and entrepreneurship

For full details on eligible activities and costs, refer to the program guidelines.

You are not eligible to apply as a lead applicant if you are:

• a primary or secondary school (primary and secondary schools may be part of a joint application)
• an individual or trust (a corporate trustee may apply on behalf of a trust)
• a Commonwealth, state or local government agency or body (including government business enterprises other than PFROs, VET providers and TAFEs)
• being funded through a previous round of the program

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

• Merit criterion 1: Expected impact and benefits of the project (50 points).
• Merit criterion 2: Demonstrated capacity and capability to carry out the project (30 points).
• Merit criterion 3: Impact of grant funding on your project (20 points).

For full details of the merit criteria please refer to the program guidelines.

We’ll assess your application against the eligibility criteria. If it is eligible, your application will proceed to merit assessment.

A selection committee will assess your eligible application against the merit criteria. They’ll compare your application to other eligible applications before recommending which projects to fund.

The Program Delegate decides which grants to approve taking into account the recommendations of the committee and available grant funds.

For more information on how we assess your application please refer to section 8 of the program guidelines.

We’ll notify you in writing to let you know whether your application was successful. If your application is unsuccessful, we’ll give you the opportunity to discuss the outcome with us.

Successful applicants must enter into a grant agreement with the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. The grant agreement will specify the payment schedule and milestones necessary to receive payments.

We'll make the following payments:

• For grants up to $50,000 we’ll pay the entire grant amount after you sign the grant agreement.
• For grants over $50,000, we’ll pay up to 50% of the grant after you sign the grant agreement.We’ll then pay progressively based on your progress reports.
• For grants over $50,000, we’ll set aside 10% of the total grant funding for the final payment.

We’ll pay this when you submit a satisfactory final report. We’ll pay by direct credit into your nominated bank account.