Jodie Jansen

Manger, Policy and Advocacy at the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry 

If your company has a manufacturing capital investment project, you should be aware that applications to the Federal Government’s Manufacturing Modernisation Fund are now open until 31 October.

The Fund supports small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in Australia to modernise, adopt new technologies, become more productive and create more jobs by co-funding capital investments.

Modernisation can include technology upgrades, efficiency upgrades, such as energy or process optimisation, or significant transformative changes to your business, which will allow you to produce new products or diversify into new markets.

The program has two different streams depending on how much funding you are seeking and how much co-funding is required from you:

1. matched grants of between $50,000 to $100,000 for small scale technology and efficiency investments
2. larger grants between $100,000 to $1 million, on a three to one funding basis, to support transformative investments in technologies and processes.

This is a competitive grant, so you will need to meet both eligibility and merit criteria and be confident you can deliver the entire project within the maximum grant period of two years.

As part of your application you will need to clearly identify how the project will improve manufacturing competitiveness and the level of job creation expected as a result. You will also need to provide evidence from the board that the project is supported, you have the capacity, capability and resources to complete the project within the timeframe and that all project costs not covered by grant funding can be met.

If you think this might apply to you, please go to business.gov.au to read the guidelines or register for an information session to get more information about the Manufacturing Modernisation Fund and helpful hints on preparing a competitive funding application.