Business Grants

Festivals Australia provides funding to support individual art projects in regional or remote locations. Eligible projects take place at festivals, or significant one-off community events such as a town celebration or opening of a new community resource. Festivals Australia will:

• provide access to a diverse range of engaging, innovative arts projects that grow audiences at festivals across regional and remote Australia,
• support partnerships and collaboration across the arts sector, and
• encourage community participation in arts projects at regional and remote festivals.

The program delivers two funding rounds each year usually opening in February and September. The Minister for the Arts (or their delegate) approves funding under the Program Guidelines.

To be eligible for funding, applicants must:

• be an Australian incorporated organisation,
• have an active Australian Business Number (ABN),
• be registered for the purposes of GST, if required by the Australian Taxation Office, and
• not have any outstanding reports, acquittals or serious breaches relating to any Australian Government funding.

Unincorporated groups are eligible for funding but must be auspiced by an organisation that meets the above criteria.

Festivals Australia does not fund projects that take place in major cities or metropolitan locations.

The Support for NDIS Providers Grants Program (Grants Program) assists the NDIS Commission to ensure people with disability have their rights upheld to access quality and safe NDIS supports and services delivered by skilled providers and workers.

The Grants Program seeks to promote quality and safety through grant activities that educate, influence and consult with stakeholders on:

• the rights of people with disability
• quality providers and workers
• a thriving and diverse market

The Grants Program is built on three complementary Pillars.

The objective of the Quality and Safeguarding grant opportunity is that:

• people with disability receive quality and safe NDIS supports and services, delivered by providers and workers who achieve and continually improve on quality and safeguarding outcomes.

The intended outcomes of the Quality and Safeguarding are to increase:

• people with disability receiving person-centred, quality and safe NDIS supports and services delivered by skilled providers and workers
• providers and workers achieving and continually improving quality NDIS supports and services
• providers and workers achieving and continually strengthening natural and formal safeguards in the delivery of NDIS supports and services.

To be eligible you must:

• have an Australian Business Number (ABN)
• have an account with an Australian financial institution
• be located in Australia

and be one of the following entity types:

• a company incorporated in Australia
• an association incorporated in Australia, including incorporated associations which are incorporated under a State Act
• an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Corporation registered under the Corporations (Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006.

You do not have to be an NDIS provider (registered or unregistered) to apply for a grant under this grant opportunity. However, providers may choose to apply for a grant.

The evoke^AG. Startup Program serves as a dynamic bridge within the agrifood tech landscape, linking emerging startups and ambitious scaleups with a diverse ecosystem encompassing farmers, innovators, researchers, industry giants, government bodies, and investors. Through this program, founders gain a compelling platform to not only share their stories and success but also to spotlight their groundbreaking innovation, which are pioneering transformative solutions to pressing global agrifood technology challenges. Join us on this journey of innovation and discovery.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Open to agrifood tech startups and scaleups addressing global challenges in areas such as artificial intelligence, climate and sustainability, production, biosecurity, and more.
• Must have a clear and scalable business model with demonstrated market demand and growth potential.
• Open to both local and international companies, with specific spots reserved for international participants.
• Emphasis on diversity, including female founders, Indigenous entrepreneurs, and startups from regional or remote areas.
• Culinary Capital only: Companies should be actively seeking investment or partnerships. They should have a well-defined investment thesis, showcasing their funding requirements, valuation, and growth plans. Startups should be prepared to engage with potential investors and partners during the dinner and post-event.
• Agventure Downunder only: The startup must not have a significant existing presence in Australia and should demonstrate a commitment to establishing and growing their business in the country, including collaborating with local stakeholders, having a preliminary market entry strategy, allocating necessary resources, fully participating in all aspects of the Mission Australia program, and financing any required co-contributions such as travel and additional activities.

This program aims at encouraging the planting 1.0ha or more of trees (>2m at maturity) that are indigenous to the region, provide nectar or pollen rewards that flower across the calendar year to support and encourage pollinator health and encourage a diversity of pollinators to enhance crop pollination outcomes. 

Grants will be assessed on their merits based on the following criteria:

• Impact /benefits to local environment, farm and community
• Likelihood of long term survival (risks are identified and mitigation strategies in place)
• Species mix: (a minimum of 60% of the species mix must be indigenous plant species to your bioregion. 
  Non-invasive Australian native plant species may be considered in order to cater for climate change forecasts, where it can be  demonstrated that it adds to the long-term resilience or planting viability due to local soil or climate conditions. Plants must reach a minimum 2m at maturity.)
• Location
• Permanent plantings
• Return on investment (level of co-financing)

Tree Grants are available to farm businesses certified with the Bee Friendly Farming program. 

The Maitri (“friendship” in Sanskrit) Grant Program has been developed to deliver the Maitri Grants and Maitri Cultural Partnerships programs aligned to the Centre for Australia-India Relations’ strategic objectives. The Program will deliver up to $5 million in funding to support grants that enhance economic, cultural and policy projects that benefit the Australia-India cultural and business relationship. 

Eligible grant activities may include:

• major events, residencies, exhibitions, and performances 
• workshops, round tables, focus groups, forums, and conferences 
• exchanges and secondments of personnel between Australia and India
• communications activities
• market research, including research commercialisation, and
• community engagement.

The intended outcomes of the Program are to: 

• advance Australian business knowledge and engagement in India
• enhance quality dialogue of issues relevant to the Australia-India relationship in both countries
• promote diverse Indian Australian communities, and
• support sector-to-sector, organisation-to-organisation, peer-to-peer relationships, and partnerships between Australian and Indian cultural and creative organisations.

The maximum grant period is three years, and grant activities must be completed by 30 April 2028. It is anticipated that most grants will be between $150,000 and $500,000, but this does not preclude some grants being more of less than this amount. All proposals will be considered under a value for money framework on assessment.

The Skills Development Fund supports production companies, game development studios and screen businesses to provide skills development through structured work-based learning.

This involves:

• the development of a detailed Skills Development Plan that:
  • addresses the key skills needs of “below-the-line crew” (“Crew”) and Gamemakers on a given production/s, games project or more broadly the national screen sector; and
  • supports diversity, equity and inclusion;

AND

• an appointed individual from within the company or an external consultant in the role of Skills Development Officer, to oversee the delivery and implementation of the Plan.

Funding of up to $80,000 is available to deliver an applicant’s Skills Development Plan. The fund is open to significant productions or projects across all formats and genres. Game development studios are eligible, as are film and TV production companies and screen businesses servicing the Australian screen sector. A co-contribution from the applicant is strongly recommended.

Multiple rounds for this grant will be available over the 2024 to 2025 period, see the grant web page for full details.

he Business Food Waste Partnership grants are available to industry peak bodies, councils, sector leaders and relevant organisations to support their members and NSW businesses to reduce and source separate their food waste.

The success of this program will contribute to NSW and national targets to halve organics waste to landfill by 2030.

The Business Food Waste Partnership grants program will provide $4 million over four years to educate and upskill businesses and institutions to avoid, reduce and source separate food waste.

The funding supports projects that will:

• raise awareness and empower food businesses with knowledge and skills in food waste reduction and source separation
• support food businesses transition to food waste source separation
• provide tools and training to reduce and recycle food waste.

Eligible applicants must:

1. be an organisation with an Australian Business Number (ABN)
2. be operational in NSW
3. be an organisation with an active relationship with the target audience
4. demonstrate experience in project delivery with the target audience
5. demonstrate the project is a new activity that can be incorporated into, or build on, existing activities, programs or other initiatives
6. demonstrate shared values or organisational goals aligned with the NSW organics waste and emissions targets
7. deliver education and communication that aligns with the NSW EPA position statement on what can be disposed of in Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) or Food Organics (FO) bins

Rural GPs providing unsupervised anaesthetics, obstetrics, surgery and/or emergency medicine may be eligible for the Rural Procedural Grants Program (RPGP) to help maintain and update your skills.

The Rural Procedural Grants Program (RPGP) provides financial assistance to GPs who provide procedural and/or emergency medicine services in unsupervised settings in rural and remote areas. This government funding supports GPs with access to relevant educational activities to maintain or update their procedural and/or emergency medicine skills.

Procedural GPs can receive up to $20,000 per financial year, and GPs providing hospital-based emergency services can receive up to $6000 per financial year. Additional funding of $6000 per financial year is available for eligible GPs providing emergency mental health services.

The Skills Development Fund supports production companies, game development studios and screen businesses to provide skills development through structured work-based learning.

This involves:

• the development of a detailed Skills Development Plan that:
  • addresses the key skills needs of “below-the-line crew” (“Crew”) and Gamemakers on a given production/s, games project or more broadly the national screen sector; and
  • supports diversity, equity and inclusion;

AND

• an appointed individual from within the company or an external consultant in the role of Skills Development Officer, to oversee the delivery and implementation of the Plan.

Funding of up to $80,000 is available to deliver an applicant’s Skills Development Plan. The fund is open to significant productions or projects across all formats and genres. Game development studios are eligible, as are film and TV production companies and screen businesses servicing the Australian screen sector. A co-contribution from the applicant is strongly recommended.

Multiple rounds for this grant will be available over the 2024 to 2025 period, see the grant web page for full details.

The MVP Ventures Program supports startups and innovative SMEs in the product lifecycle between early-stage research and mature investment opportunities, through grants to drive the commercialisation of highly innovative and new products.

The objective of the Program is to:

• support businesses throughout the pre-market development and commercialisation pathway of their innovative products in NSW
• attract and retain commercialisation activities in NSW

The Program targets new products within Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 3 – 9 to help them move along the TRL scale and enable them to attract large-scale private investment. 

To be eligible, your business must:

• have an active Australian Business Number (ABN)
• be non-tax exempt
• be Headquartered in NSW
• have an account with an Australian financial institution
• be a company incorporated in Australia
• hold intellectual property (IP) or rights to commercialise
• have an Aggregated Turnover that is no more than A$1 million for each of the three financial years prior to the lodgement of your application, and
• have no more than a total of 20 FTE (including Founders).

To be eligible, your project must:

• be related to the pre-market development and commercialisation pathway of your product
• involve progressing your product or process along the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale between 3 and 9
• be aligned to and marketed within one of the following NSW Government Industry Development Framework priority industries
• have secured a minimum 50% cash contribution (no in-kind) for the project
• be completed within 12 months of funding, minimum project period is 3 months
• undertake funded activities in NSW
• demonstrate why sufficient funding for the entire project cannot be accessed from alternative sources and that the project would not proceed in NSW without government support
• include only eligible expenditure.

Public Lending Right (PLR) and Educational Lending Right (ELR) are Australian Government programs that compensate Australian creators and publishers in recognition of income lost through free multiple use of their books in public and educational lending libraries. These programs support the enrichment of Australian culture by encouraging the growth and development of Australian writing.

A creator or a publisher must register and submit title claims within five years from the year of publication. Books are surveyed in a sample of either public lending libraries (PLR) or school, TAFE and university libraries (ELR).

Eligible creators are:

• authors, editors, illustrators, translators and compilers
• Australian citizens, wherever they reside, or non-citizens who normally reside in Australia (eligibility ceases if residency in Australia ceases)
• those who receive on-going royalties from the sale of their book.

Eligible publishers are:

• companies whose business consists wholly or substantially of the publication of books and who regularly publish in Australia—'regularly publish' is defined as at least once in the preceding three year period
• non-profit organisations that publish to further their aims or objectives
• self-publishing creators.

The Elsa Dixon Aboriginal Employment Grant (EDAEG) adopts a number of strategies to develop and support Aboriginal people through the creation of training and employment opportunities. Promoting diversity, innovation and service responsiveness in the NSW workforce, the Elsa Dixon Aboriginal Employment Grant subsidises the salary, development and support costs of Aboriginal employees in public service agencies and local government authorities.

Grant elements

• School-based Apprenticeships and Traineeships – $10,000 one off payment to support school-based apprenticeships and traineeships.
• Post School Element – up to $30,000 (Part-time or Full-time Employment Status) to support the continuation of employment for a learner who successfully completed a High School Certificate (HSC, Year 12) requirements from the year 2022 to the present day.
• Aboriginal Adult Apprenticeships and Traineeships (AAAT) – up to $40,000 to support the creation of employment of an apprenticeship or traineeship. Learners must be a minimum 21 years of age to be eligible.
• Permanent Ongoing Employment – up to $40,000 to support the creation of permanent employment.

The 2024-25 National Energy Bill Relief payment helps NSW small businesses pay their electricity bills. 

Eligible NSW small businesses who are embedded network (on-supply) customers can apply for a National Energy Bill Relief payment of up to $325 in financial year 2024-25 via this portal.  

Eligible small businesses who are retail customers will receive their Bill Relief payment automatically via their energy bills. Contact your energy retailer for more information.

The payment is delivered by the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water on behalf of the Commonwealth Government.

The Regional Filming Fund offsets costs associated with shooting in regional areas of NSW. Regional NSW is defined as all areas in NSW outside the Sydney Metro area.

The objectives of the program are to:

• Increase economic activity in regional NSW, by encouraging NSW screen productions to film outside of metropolitan areas
• Enable regional NSW to benefit from the growth of film and television production in the State

Applicants must fulfil the following eligibility criteria:

The production must film on location in Regional NSW for a minimum of five shooting days
in a single Local Government Area (LGA)
Please find the LGA map here.

• At least one of the Key Creatives must be NSW-based
• The production company must be registered in NSW and have its principal place of business in NSW unless the production has an eligible NSW Spend of at least $5 million
• The production must film on location in Regional NSW for a minimum of five shooting days
• At least 50% of the total budget must be expended in NSW
• Productions must be fully financed at the time of application, with the exception of contributions being sought from Screen NSW and other state, federal or international agencies (Note: they will only consider an application where those agencies have confirmed their contribution or if the application has been submitted to a funding round running concurrently with the Screen NSW round.)
• Productions that have been shortlisted for Screen Australia’s Documentary Production
• Producer Program or Multi-Platform Drama Fund may apply
• Feature films must have distribution in place
• Television drama, narrative comedy and factual/documentary programs must have a financial commitment from a broadcaster, subscription service or distributor.

The objective of the Program is to incentivise voluntary uptake of ADS-B equipment in Australian-registered aircraft operating under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) to improve safety and efficiency for Australian airspace users.

The program will provide:

• better situational awareness for pilots through improved electronic visibility of nearby airborne VFR and IFR aircraft
• enhanced search and rescue capabilities through improved air traffic information
• air traffic controllers with additional and accurate automated aircraft position information of VFR aircraft.

The Program funds two classes of eligible ADS-B equipment:

• installed ADS-B equipment that air traffic controllers can use for aircraft separation purposes (referred to as ADS-B)
• portable ADS-B equipment for local electronic traffic information purposes (referred to as ADS-B EC).

To apply you must:

• be the registered owner of a crewed aircraft operating under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) or Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) and shown in an approved registration database including:
• the CASA Australian aircraft register for VH aircraft (e.g. fixed wing, helicopter, balloon, glider) registration database managed by CASA
• an approved Australian Sport Aviation organisation:
  • Recreational Aviation Australia (RAAus)
  • Australian Sport Rotorcraft Association (ASRA)
  • Sports Aviation Federation of Australia (SAFA).
• purchase and/or install in your registered aircraft:
  • a device which provides ADS-B-OUT functionality or an ADS-B EC device but not both, after 20 December 2021, or
  • a device which provides ADS-B-IN functionality or a device which provides ADS-B-IN and OUT functionality, after 31 May 2024.

If a grant was paid in respect of your aircraft under ADS-B Round 1 you are eligible to apply under the following conditions:

• the equipment adds ADS-B IN functionality that was not previously available, or
• you are upgrading from an EC device to installed equipment.

Reopening of the Bin Trim Equipment Rebates Program for eligible NSW businesses, councils, and organisations. $6 million has been allocated to continue the initiative for three years until 30 June 2027, or until all funding is used.

Rebates up to $50,000 are being offered to cover up to 50% of the cost of small-scale, on-site equipment or technology that avoids, reduces, reuses, or recycles waste. The initiative is aimed at supporting businesses to transition to a circular economy.

Some examples of equipment and technologies that may be funded include but are not limited to:

• balers
• briquette presses
• bulk bag stands and bulk bags
• cardboard perforator
• commercial worm farms
• compactors
• glass crushers
• granulators
• organics rapid decomposition units (where output is sent to a licenced composting facility)
• plastic injection moulders
• shredders
• smart scales and other food waste monitoring equipment
• source separation bins, wheelie bins, skip bins and other bin equipment – with bin signs and stickers
• trolleys to transport waste and maximise waste separation and diversion.

Businesses applying for the Rebates Program must:

• have a commercial and industrial (C&I) waste service at a site in NSW
• have a valid ABN and employ one or more full time employees in NSW, and
• send C&I waste to landfill in NSW.

Businesses can include entities that are registered charities, not-for-profits, public entities (including schools and hospitals), and government organisations.

You can only apply for concessional this loan if your small business is currently or has been supplying goods or services relating to primary production to farm businesses in an affected area. This loan is not available to farm businesses.

The loan is for ten years and has no fees, 2 years interest free, 3 years interest only and 5 years principal and interest.

It may be used for:

• refinance your debt
• pay suppliers
• pay for operating expenses
• pay salaries, wages and rent

The Impact Investment Ready Growth Grant provides impact businesses and mission-driven organisations with grants of up to $140,000 for business, financial, legal and other capacity building support from providers to secure investment.

Growth Grants were created in recognition of the potential for impact investing to change the way Australia addresses social issues and the important role that access to capital can play in delivering better outcomes for people and communities. They support enterprises that are high growth, can deliver positive social outcomes and have the potential to secure capital investment.

The Newsagents Assistance Fund assists eligible agents to update their NSW Lotteries retail image and fit-out to align with the NSW Lotteries brand.

The Newsagents Assistance Fund is available to NSW Lotteries Agents that were active on 30 January 2015

Trial a young person to find out if they're the right fit for your business and get $1000 to help cover the costs of the trial. During the trial, you don't pay the young person. Instead, the Australian Government gives them $200 a fortnight on top of their income support and covers their insurance.

Businesses can also receive up to $10,000 (GST inclusive) through a Youth Bonus wage subsidy if they hire an eligible young person between 15 and 24 years of age.

The young person must:

• be a fully eligible participant, commenced with a jobactive or Transition to Work provider
• have received employment services from a provider (jobactive, Transition to Work, Disability Employment Services or Community Development Programme provider) continuously for the last six months
• have mutual obligation requirements at the time they commence in the wage subsidised job
• not been in a pre-existing employment relation with you in the previous six months
• not be an immediate family member.