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Australian university researchers and their industry partners will benefit from $180 million in grant funding to commercialise research, supporting priority areas such as critical minerals, renewable hydrogen and green metals.
Australia’s Economic Accelerator (AEA) has officially launched with the first round of grants now open.
Two streams of grants are available with $500,000 available for proof-of-concept Ignite grants and up to $5 million for proof-of-scale Innovate grants.
AEA Advisory Board Chair and Thales CEO, Mr Jeff Connolly said that Australia has some of the best researchers in the world.
“AEA seeks to enable a part of that research capability to be applied to priority areas identified in National Reconstruction Fund which is designed to transform Australia’s industry and fuel economic prosperity,” he said.
"We target projects which seek to match existing research capability to Australia’s natural competitive strengths, in order to best address the most significant industry opportunities.
“Already initial AEA Seed funded projects, such as Sparc Hydrogen’s partnership with the University of Adelaide and Fortescue, are supporting development of globally disruptive green hydrogen technology which would allow hydrogen to be produced more flexibly, at scale, with less infrastructure.”
AEA grants support the Australian Government identified priority areas for the economy (outlined in the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (Priority Areas) Declaration 2023) and Future Made in Australia policy to scale up priority industries that will help diversify and grow Australia’s economy and workforce.
Within these priorities, the first round of grants will prioritise projects that align with one or more of the following focus areas:
- critical and strategic minerals processing
- sustainable fuels
- digital agriculture
- quantum
- artificial intelligence (AI)
- advanced manufacturing.
As outlined in the AEA Advisory Board’s Annual Investment Plan 2024-25, the focus areas directly contribute towards areas of national priority and will capitalise on important opportunities in areas of Australian economic advantage, such as refining and processing of critical minerals, renewable hydrogen, and green metals.
AEA is a $1.6 billion Australian Government investment aimed at transforming Australia’s research translation and commercialisation landscape.
Submissions for Ignite applications and Innovate Expression of Interest close 5:00pm AEST Wednesday 28 August 2024. Find out more about the AEA grants.