Emerging Industry Infrastructure Fund (EIIF)

Medical researchers in lab

These grants target new industries where NSW has competitive advantage and where co-investment in joint infrastructure will build existing industry, and attract global companies and investment into NSW.

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Key information

  • Status: Closed
  • Grant amount: Up to $6,000,000
  • Application opened: 6 September 2022
  • Application closed: 20 October 2022, 5:00 pm

Program objective

Round 2 of the EIIF will provide up to $6 million to support Synthetic Biology and Biomanufacturing specific infrastructure, facilities, equipment and platforms which could allow activities such as prototyping, scaleup and testing of products. The supporting staff could connect researchers, industry, startups and supply chains. Programs could include incubation and acceleration support.

This program is funded and administered by Office of the Chief Scientist and Engineer.

Eligibility

Who can apply

To be eligible for EIIF support, the organisation/s applying for EIIF must:

  • Be a university or publicly funded research organisation (PFRO), or their collaborative entities OR
  • Be a NSW-located National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) facility or other openly accessible research facility OR
  • Be a private firm/s that operate openly accessible R&D and innovation infrastructure OR
  • Be a consortium-based application, that includes industry organisation or firms, universities and PFROs, public sector organisations or other organisations.

Who can’t apply

Ineligible applicants include consortia or partnerships with businesses that are insolvent.

NSW DEIT at its sole discretion, can take other factors into account that may cause a business to be ineligible for support, such as any personnel or business activities that could cause reputational damage or other risk to the NSW Government. 

Where an application is identified as not meeting the above eligibility criteria, the application may be set aside from further consideration at the absolute discretion of NSW DEIT. 

Types of projects funded under this grant

Grant funds may be provided for any of the below which are directly targeted at driving translation, prototyping, testing and scale-up of synthetic biology and biomanufacturing products, and where it can be demonstrated that the activity will increase utilisation and industry outcomes:

  • funding shared facilities, communal spaces, equipment and research infrastructure that connects industry and research, and drives informal exchanges of ideas, networks, and partnerships
  • develop pilot and demonstration-scale synthetic biology/biomanufacturing facilities
  • laboratory facilities improvement to facilitate industry access
  • major equipment upgrades or replacement, or equipment to increase the ‘industry offering’ of the facility
  • highly skilled technical experts where it can be shown that this enhances end-user access or outcomes from the equipment
  • researcher access to different types and scales of bioreactors, precision fermentation, etc., that allow necessary scale-up and testing
  • business development managers or industry application scientists employed by a university, research infrastructure facility or consortium to assist SMEs and companies to navigate the research pathways and access infrastructure
  • industry-focused collaborative programs (including incubation and acceleration support) driving access to infrastructure and commercialisation, which can be joint across facilities
  • programs supporting upskilling and professional development for students, graduates, and industry participants.

Most recent recipients

All recipients (2)

What your application needs to include

You can read the

File

Emerging Industry Infrastructure Fund Round 2 – Synthetic Biology and Biomanufacturing Guidelines (PDF 586.89KB)
1

Address the eligibility criteria

  • Have an Australian Business Number (ABN)
  • All single-entity applicants must be headquartered in NSW and/or have a major research/innovation presence located in NSW. If a proposal is consortium-based, the proposal lead must be headquartered in NSW. For the purpose of this Program, the following definitions for headquarters and major presence apply:
    • Headquarters - the main administrative office of the applicant or facility and the location of the CEO. Headquarters must remain in NSW for the period of the Agreement
    • Major presence - entities with a major research or innovation presence in NSW are those that retain 40 per cent (or more) of their researchers, developers or other innovation staff (total staff and PhDs, incl. part-time) in NSW for the period of the agreement.
  • Be financially viable and able to demonstrate they are likely to remain so over the duration of the project
  • Have the demonstrated skills and capacity to deliver the project
  • Ineligible applicants include consortia or partnerships with businesses that are insolvent
  • Ensure all grant monies are used on activities undertaken within NSW and on staff, students or equipment to be located in NSW.

Proposals that propose spending grant funding on partners, activities or items outside of NSW will not be eligible (other than the purchase of equipment to bring to NSW).

  • Align to the industry, technology and innovation needs of the state for the applications synthetic biology, biomanufacturing (such as cell-based meats and other applications) and genetic engineering identified in the 

    File

    NSW 20-Year R&D Roadmap (PDF 2.49MB)
2

Address the assessment criteria

The application must outline answers to the questions related to the selection  criteria to enable the application to be assessed. Failure to provide this information may result in the application being set aside from further consideration at DEIT's absolute discretion.

As this is a competitive grants process, the assessment will be a comparative assessment of the application against all other eligible applications.

The EIIF application form seeks responses to criteria listed in the table below:

CriteriaDescription
Applications will be assessed according to the criteria outlined below: 
Project impact in driving research, development, innovation, commercialisation and industry outcomes for synthetic biology and/or biomanufacturing.
  • How the funding/project will support synthetic biology and biomanufacturing through:
    • specific infrastructure and platforms which could allow activities such as prototyping, scale-up and testing of products, AND/OR
    • connect researchers, industry, startups and supply chains, AND/OR incubation and acceleration support.
  • Approach for ensuring open access to the infrastructure for researchers, startups and industry.
Broader impact across the innovation ecosystem
  • Alignment with the NSW 20-Year R&D Roadmap and ARDAC Report Actions
  • Alignment with the innovation precinct industry and research strengths
  • NSW industry, Government agency and enduser linkages
  • Impact on NSW skills, advanced education and training
  • Collaboration across the ecosystem
Track record of relevant delivery, experience or expertise to lead a public infrastructure project and/or support program 
  • Expertise or industry knowledge that makes your organisation/s uniquely qualified to deliver this public infrastructure investment and/or program
  • Track record of current facilities, projects or similar work/collaborations or for industry delivered proposals 
Project delivery plan
  • Delivery plan and risk management
  • Capacity for the total funding sought and provided through the grant, partners,  participants, and other funding sources to fully fund the project. Applications can include cofunding proposals and potential leveraging opportunities
  • Vision for this infrastructure investment beyond the funding timeframe

The responses to these criteria will be used by NSW DEIT to determine whether to recommend funding to the applicant, and how much funding to recommend.

NSW DEIT will make recommendations regarding funding allocations to applicants.

NSW DEIT, through the CEO Investment NSW, in its discretion, may choose not to award or recommend funding under this program.

Start the application

Applications for this grant are available via the Smartygrants portal.

Apply now

After the application is submitted

Successful applications will be decided by: The Emerging Industry Infrastructure Fund Expert Panel.

The Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer (OCSE) will assess application eligibility.

An Expert Panel made up of industry, academia and government representatives, separate to the OCSE, will assess the applications on a competitive and recommend applications for EIIF funding.

The Expert Panel reserves the right to engage with applicants, where appropriate to explore opportunities to collaborate between applicants.

The Expert Panel has discretion to recommend that an applicant receive a smaller amount of funding than they originally asked for.

Support and contact

For any further questions regarding the EIIF Round 2, contact us through the webform.

Alternatively contact us through

  • Phone: 61 2 4908 4800
  • Post: Investment NSW, GPO Box 5341, Sydney NSW 2001. 
     
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