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Innovation grants and support
A number of grants and resources are available to help businesses innovate. Businesses need to innovate in order to grow, stay ahead of their competitors and reduce costs.
Investing in innovation enables businesses to introduce new (or improved) products, services, processes or methods. Many businesses want to innovate but don't know how to go about it; they often see it as too hard, too expensive, or too time-consuming.
Taking advantage of available funding and mentoring support could save your business valuable time and money, and streamline the innovation process.
This guide explains how you can access a range of grants and support services to help your business innovate.
Grants for innovation
Business innovation often requires an up-front investment of resources to develop new ideas, with a view to future profits. For businesses that are unable to fund their own ideas, a range of grants and financial assistance is available to support innovation. An easy way to find suitable grants is to use a grants directory.
Grants directories
Grants directories are often a good place to start if you are looking for innovation funding, but aren't sure what is available to you. The aim of a grants directory is to provide a list of all available grants in the one place. This allows you to easily find the relevant financial support opportunities for your business.
Australian Business Licence and Information Service (ABLIS)
ABLIS provides information about grants and subsidies that are tailored to your specific business and industry.
Queensland Government science and innovation grants
Learn about the range of grants and programs available from Advance Queensland.
Grants and assistance finders
Queensland Government Grants finder – search for Queensland Government grants and assistance programs for your business and research needs.
The Grants and programs tool – search the Australian Government's directory for information on business and industry grant opportunities. This directory can direct you to funding programs for new ideas and initiatives from all levels of government – Queensland, Australian and local.
Renewable energy funding
Renewable energy grants are available for businesses looking to fund an innovative renewable energy project.
Research and development (R&D) tax incentive
The Australian Government's R&D Tax Incentive helps eligible businesses with a generous tax offset of some of the costs of doing R&D. It aims to help innovative businesses to do R&D and is open to firms of all sizes conducting eligible R&D activities in all sectors. View a snapshot of the R&D Tax Incentive for an overview of the program, including eligibility criteria.
Also consider...
- Read about how to prepare and write a grant application.
- Learn about ways to grow your business.
- Watch our Support to grow your business webinar for information on available business grants, programs and support from the Australian and Queensland governments.
- Learn about applying and pitching for government grants from our Mentoring for Growth (M4G) mentors
Innovation centres
Innovation centres give you the opportunity to discuss your ideas with business experts and access multi-faceted services. They are a valuable resource as they can often help your business with every step of the innovation process. If you are looking to grow your ideas, an innovation centre can help you find strategies to develop and implement them.
Innovation centre services
Innovation centres have varying services, and can tailor these to your particular needs and stage of innovation development. Each innovation centre will also have its own set of eligibility criteria, so it's important to find one that suits your business needs.
Common services include access to:
- office space
- financial support
- practical support and guidance
- networking support
- idea validation
- public relations
- educational seminars and workshops.
Queensland innovation centres
Some key innovation centres in Queensland are:
Other innovation centres located across Brisbane and regional Queensland include:
- ARC Hardware Incubator - Fortitude Valley
- Cairns Business Hub
- Canvas Coworking –Toowoomba
- CAPreneurs – Capricorn Coast
- Fire Station 101 Business Innovation Hub – Ipswich
- GC Hub - Gold Coast
- Innovate Moreton Bay
- Regional Business HQ – Bundaberg and Gympie
- Smart Hub – Rockhampton
- Smart Precinct NQ – Townsville
- Spark Bureau – Birtinya
- Split Spaces – Mackay
- Startup and Innovation Tablelands
- Startup Gladstone
- Stepping Black – Bundaberg
- The Powerhouse Collective – Noosa
- The Precinct – Fortitude Valley
Our Strategic visualisation tool shows the strategic connections between these innovation centres, Queensland research organisations and manufacturing hubs across 7 emerging knowledge-intensive industries.
Innovation readiness tools
Coming up with a new idea, or significantly improved delivery of a product or service, is the basis of innovation. Often business owners have ideas they think will benefit their business, but don't implement them because they don't know how to, or because they are afraid their new idea might fail.
Before implementing a new idea it's important to determine if your idea will work. Part of this process is to consider if your business is ready to go ahead with the idea, and if the marketplace is ready to receive your new product, service or delivery method. The following tools can help you determine your innovation readiness.
Also consider...
- Learn more about becoming an innovative business.
- Find more tools and templates to help with innovation readiness.
- Read more about evaluating your business idea and your innovation.
- Learn about risk management for businesses.
- The Innovation Case Study Library is a suite of videos that showcase Queensland local business innovation and entrepreneurship.
© The State of Queensland 1995–2024
- Last reviewed: 08 Sep 2021
- Last updated: 08 Sep 2021