Technology Voucher Program

Victorian Technology Voucher Program

The Victorian Technology Voucher Program came out of the STIUP (Small Technologies Industry Uptake Program) and is one of the most progressive and effective technology development assistance programs in Australia.

 

The main different to the earlier program is that it also allows ICT (Information Communications Technology) platforms to be developed. For qualifying projects this is the deal.

 

You put in $1 and the Victorian government will put in $3!

 

There is a cap of $50K for the non-competitive bids for Technology Development Vouchers and $25K for the Technology Innovation Vouchers. The most confusing part here is the language.

 

I’m going to focus here on how you might take advantage of this program to access our R&D capability at a significant discount. Successful Endeavours are registered suppliers with the program meaning that you can nominate us as a supplier and use the voucher to cover up to 75% of the R&D services we provide you with.

 

Innovation Voucher Program

The Innovation Vouchers can be used for things like the development of a new product or product platform involving electronics and embedded software. It has to be for the R&D work for the product itself and not for software licenses, business systems etc. These have a maximum voucher allowance of $25K with a co-contribution of 25%. Here is a link to the government website Innovation Voucher Program. The option to select is the Business R&D Voucher. That is the confusing bit, the rest is quite straight forward.

 

The application process takes about two hours online and there are no strings attached to the commercial outcome, no loss of Intellectual Property rights, they are non-competitive for the smaller vouchers and the reporting requirements are lightweight.

 

This program is so good, most people don’t believe it the first time they hear about it.

 

What you get if your application is successful, is a voucher which you can use to access R&D resources at a nominated supplier such as Successful Endeavours. This means that you don’t have to pay a registered supplier yourself, the government pays them through the voucher. This helps a lot with cash flow as I’m sure you can appreciate. There is a co-contribution requirement of 25% which is paid first and then the voucher can be used to get the government to pay for the remaining program of work. They are making sure companies actually pay the co-contribution amount by getting them to pay that amount first.

 

As an example, for an Innovation Voucher for Business R&D you get a maximum of $25K for the voucher and you co-contribution must be at least 25%. So an eligible program of work could deliver you $32K of R&D at a direct cost of only $8K!

 

Technology Development Voucher

The Technology Development Vouchers can be used for things like the development of a prototype and the refining and testing process. This is usually for things that are brand new technology types (at least for the company wanting them developed). These have a maximum voucher allowance of $50K with a co-contribution of 25%. Here is a link to the government website Technology Development Voucher.

 

The Technology Development Voucher has only 1 catch; the voucher gets paid at the end of the program of work. But that is also an incentive to operate the project efficiently from our end.

 

And a company can have one each of the vouchers listed above so you can split the program of work up across the 2 for eligible activities. The Department of State Development Business and Innovation, DSDBI, oversees the program and will provide you with every assistance in getting your application right. They want you to get access to the funding you need to develop new products.

 

My recommendation is to check out the Victorian Government website and then to arrange a time for us to meet either us or DSDBI to see how you can take advantage of this program. This is the best deal going for SMEs wanting to access Government assistance for their R&D.

 

Successful Endeavours specialise in Electronics Design and Embedded Software Development. Ray Keefe has developed market leading electronics products in Australia for nearly 30 years. This post is Copyright © 2013 Successful Endeavours Pty Ltd.