Grants ranging from $50 million to $100 million may be available for one-third of renewable energy power generation demonstration projects. The Australian Government's Renewable Energy Demonstration Program is calling for registrations of interest from potential applicants for the program. Registration of interest forms close by 5pm on Wednesday 4 March 2009 and grant applications close on Wednesday 15 April 2009. Application workshops are planned for March 10-13 in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Funding of 50 per cent of a researcher's salary, to a maximum of $50,000, is available under the Australian Government's new Researchers in Business program. The placement of researchers from universities or public research agencies can be for 2-12 months.

INNOVIC's 2009 Next Big Thing Award carries $60,000 in cash and prizes. Applications close on Monday 16 March 2009. This year, the awards feature a new international category alongside the normal gongs which cover innovation excellence, green innovation and a social/community benefit award.

Anthill's Pitch Club has a list of planned 2009 events, with the first two in Brisbane on Thursday 26 March and Launceston on Thursday 30 April, and other capital cities later. Designed to boost entrepreneurship, innovation and growth, The Pitch Club pitches 10 ideas or ventures to a crowd of investors, business angels, venture capital and entrepreneur enthusiasts. You can register to pitch or attend.

Businesses now incurring export promotion expenditure in the 2008-09 grant year, and intending to apply for the Australian Government's Export Market Development Grants from 1 July 2009, should be aware of key changes including:

• an increase to the maximum grant by $50,000 to $200,000
• lifting the maximum turnover limit from $30 million to $50 million
• reducing the minimum expenditure threshold by $5000, to $10,000
• allowing costs of patenting products overseas to be EMDG eligible

Click here for a list of free EMDG coaching sessions.

The 2009 Australian Innovation Festival will involve more than 500 events in all states and territories with the theme being Solutions for Success. The Festival focuses on the 4Cs of innovation - creativity, connections, collaboration and commercialisation.

The report Rethinking Regulation recommended a website be developed to improve consultation between business and government and the result is business.gov.au Business Consultation. This site is your chance to tell the Australian Government what you think about policies and regulations that may affect business. Public consultations will be posted to the site by government agencies.

AusIndustry announcements

Climate Ready provides grants from $50,000 to $5 million for the costs of research and development, proof-of-concept and early-stage commercialisation activities in eligible projects.

The program supports projects for innovations designed to address the impacts of climate change which may include:

• water recycling, waste recovery or small-scale renewable energy technologies
• technologies that reduce the energy used by appliances or increase the efficiency of industrial processes
• products, processes or services to monitor emissions or power use
• using biotechnology or nanotechnology to address the effects of climate change on people and the environment
• informations systems for businesses or consumers to compare the carbon footprints of different activities
• green building materials that make homes more energy efficient.

Round 3 closes on Thursday 12 March 2009.

Recent AusIndustry Customer Stories

Australian small business Ayres Composite Panels can list NASA among its customers. Ayres develops and manufactures lightweight panels mainly for the marine industry but NASA has used the technology to protect its solar panels. Ayres is registered for the Tradex Scheme, which provides up-front exemptions from customs duty and GST.

Family-owned NSW fresh fruit business Costa Group committed to using Australian suppliers when constructing the nation's largest hydroponic tomato farm. In return, Costa Group was able to apply for the Enhanced Project By-law Scheme to receive duty concessions on imported goods that could not be sourced locally.

As a major exporter and with massive focus on research, well-known Australian company Davey Water Products finds great cash-flow and tax break benefits by being registered for the Tradex Scheme and the R&D Tax Concession. Davey exports $30 million worth of its product and Tradex enables exemption on paying customs duty and GST on imported goods intended for export. The Tax Concession enables Davey to deduct research and development expenditure when lodging tax returns.