Barton Deakin Brief: Australia’s Economic Accelerator

Overview

Today Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a $1.6 billion Economic Accelerator to turn research into commercial projects. Australia’s Economic Accelerator (AEA) will focus on 6 key industries: resources and critical minerals, food and beverage, medical products, recycling and clean energy, defence, and space. This funding intends to bridge the gap where early-stage research is often not progressed due to higher levels of risk and uncertainty.

Strategy

• Australia’s Economic Accelerator will invest in projects as they progress through the stages of their development.
• The AEA will boost investment in two critical stages of experimental development: proof of concept and proof of scale.
• AEA funding will be broken up into three stages:
  • Stage one will involve nearly 100 grants a year of up to $500,000.
  • Stage two will involve 36 recipients attracting up to $5 million in funding. To be one of those recipients, industry will need to pledge 50 per cent co-investment.
  • Stage three will involve up to 50 companies being supported through the CSIRO Main Sequence Venture, where the government will provide $150 million in two successive co-investment funds.
• Alongside the AEA, the government will also invest $296 million in industry focused PhDs to support greater university-industry collaboration.
  • This scheme will create 1,800 industry PhDs and over 800 industry fellows over 10 years.
• The suite of measures being undertaken by the Morrison government aims to enhance collaboration between academia and industry in order to harness the commercial potential of Australian research.

Additional Information

You can access the Prime Minister’s Media Release here.

For more information, contact  David Alexander on +61 457 400 524, Grahame Morris on +61 411 222 680, Cheryl Cartwright on +61 419 996 066 or Julia Kokic on +61 405 955 887