With the total of $11 million funding available, and $4-5 million this funding round, Digital Futures Fund is an opportunity not to be missed.
The Government initiative offers a massive boost to collaborative projects that use cutting edge applications of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to contribute to a competitive, productive and growing economy in the state of Victoria.
The projects need to be a collaboration of at least two Victorian based small-to-medium enterprises, each with fewer than 200 employees, and the collaborating businesses must have an interest in solving a shared problem or challenge.
The funding is open to any project that demonstrates innovative application of ICT.
The program follows a two-stage competitive process:
Stage 1: Applicants are required to submit an Expression of Interest providing the outline of their project idea. If shortlisted and invited to Stage 2, they may be granted up to $20,000 towards producing a Business Plan for their project.
Stage 2: Shortlisted applicants will be asked to present their Business Plan, and if successful, they will be offered between $50,000 to $500,000 (ex GST) towards putting their project into action.
The submission deadline for Stage 1 EoI applications is 7 March 2013.
Digital Futures Fund, which is the key initiative of “Victoria’s Technology Plan for the Future – Information and Communication Technology” – an $85 million plan to promote ICT enabled innovation and support Victoria’s ICT sector, was launched in early March at the Australian Information Industry Association Forum 2012. When addressing the Forum, Minister for Technology Gordon Rich-Phillips said: “The Digital Futures Fund will encourage Victorian companies, researchers and end users to work together to develop ICT solutions to address major business challenges. It gives Victorian businesses a unique opportunity to work with other businesses and organisations to create new, innovative technologies for their day-to-day operations.”
The Victorian Government’s deep commitment towards creating the right conditions and incentives in the ICT sector comes from a strong conviction that ICT is indispensable to Victoria’s future. In the last 15 years, Information and Communication Technology solutions have had a transformative and revolutionary impact on many diverse areas such as communications, medicine, agriculture, education and manufacturing. The ICT sector continues to grow as Australia faces new challenges such as ageing population, declining productivity and increasing urbanisation and globalisation. As we can no longer rely on a population-fuelled economic growth, the Government believes that we must look for new ways to re-invigorate productivity growth and support innovation. This is where ICT solutions come into play. Today, ICT is used in one form or another by most businesses and often serves as a critical link – bringing together people and technologies to create a new quality of products, services or processes.
For further information and to see if your business qualifies for government funding programs , please contact our office on 1800 785 972
