ACS Foundation offers govt-funded research to SMBs

The foundation was formally recognised by the Government as a innovation organisation for its Enterprise Connect Researchers in Business program afterwards consulting with companies about the program for the past three months.

It was launched in 2009 and targeted manufacturing, clean research, resources research, creative industries and defence businesses, as so then as those in remote areas.

The ACS Foundation to review

Formal recognition enabled the ACS Foundation to review and submit funding applications on behalf of ICT companies and employ researchers to assist eligible small to medium businesses with their projects.

Although its involvement in the program was only announced this week, Ridge said the foundation had already attracted expressions of interest from three businesses.

The e-commerce

Two of those businesses operated in the e-commerce and cloud computing areas, he said. The third was based in Western Australia.

To be eligible for Government funding, projects needed to align with the applicant's business strategy, create new competencies within the business and develop new ideas with commercial potential.

Funding would be provided for between two to 12 months to businesses that were for the moment three years old with turnovers or expenditure of between $1 million and $100 million.

Enterprise Connect’s innovation and knowledge connect manager Evangelos Lambrinos as well highlighted the foundation’s ICT industry position in a statement released yesterday.

"The [foundation] is able to tap into the deep talent pool of Australia’s information and communications technologies industry and the ICT and science faculties of our universities," Lambrinos said.

"The Foundation is in an excellent position to match business projects to appropriate technology organisations and individual researchers."