Thursday, January 21, 2010

Government Grants



I've been looking into the new Commercialisation Australia government grants and we're going to apply for a 'Proof of Concept' grant to help us fund some of the work we want to do to further develop Shoes of Prey.

The program looks quite good and I like that they've set it up so that you do a smaller version of the application first, then if you're successful through that stage you do the full application. It's great that they don't suck up your time with the full application at the outset.

iPitch.com.au have just written up a good post about the grants if you're looking for more information.

Has anyone had any experience with government grants in the past? Anyone else thinking of applying?
Posted by Michael Fox at 2:20 PM

7 comments:

  1. I'm actually going to be applying for the same grant for one of my other projects. So I'm in exactly the same spot you're in right now, good luck!
    ReplyDelete
  3. Commercialisation Australia is a great program. I have assisted clients get grants for the previous programs, Commercial Ready and Climate Ready. This new grant will be highly competitive.

    Is there much left to commercialise on Shoes of Prey. It didnt appear to be too technical?

    Ben Cusack
    HLB Mann Judd
    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Ben, we're keen to move ahead and improve on our shoe designer. We'd like to develop a 3D version of the shoe designer which shows much more realistic images and allows the user to rotate the shoe and see it from all angles. 3D models in web browsers is a relatively new space and it's a fair technical challenge to do it properly, so we were hoping to use the grant to help fund that work.

    What do you think? Based on your experience is that something we'd have a chance of getting funding for? I've pretty much finished the proposal so was going to send it off before the end of the week.
    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Michael,
    Did you end up sending it off?

    Ben Cusack
    HLB Mann Judd
    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Ben, yeah I did. The feedback was we'd need to get some IP protection in the form of patents for what we've done and what we would be working on in order to get a grant. I'm sure we could go down that path and get some patents, but the time/cost of doing that versus the practical value wouldn't be worthwhile except for the grant... and we're obviously not guaranteed to get a grant so we decided not to pursue it.
    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Michael,
    I would have to agree. Not worthwhile for your type of business. CA tend to focus more on high tech.

    Ben
    ReplyDelete

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