MVP Ventures Program

Round 3

• Opens: 9 March 2026
• Closes: 5 April 2026

Round 1

• Opened: 1 September 2025
• Closed: 28 September 2025

The grant amount for eligible businesses will be up to 50 percent of the Total Eligible Project Expenditure (grant percentage), with a:

• minimum grant of $20,000
• maximum grant of $50,000
• minimum co-contribution of 50%.

If your business is:

• majority Women-owned and managed, or
• regionally headquartered and operated*, or
• Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander majority-owned and managed

A grant amount of up to 75% of the Total Eligible Project Expenditure (grant percentage) is available, with a:

• minimum grant of $20,000
• maximum grant of $75,000
• minimum co-contribution of 25%.

*Refer to the FAQ page for LGA listings 

To be eligible to apply, your business must:

• have an active Australian Business Number (ABN)
• be headquartered in NSW
• have an account with an Australian authorised deposit-taking institution
• be a company incorporated in Australia under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) or an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Corporation registered under the Corporations (Aboriginal and /or Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 (Cth)
• hold intellectual property (IP) or rights to commercialise
• have an aggregated turnover of $400,000 or less in each of the three financial years prior to the lodgement of your application, and
• have 10 or fewer Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees including founders.

In addition, you must satisfy the eligibility requirements of the funding stream you are applying for.

To be eligible, projects must:

• be directly related to the pre-market development and commercialisation pathway of your product
• involve progressing your product along the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale between 3 and 9
• demonstrate why the project would not proceed in NSW without government support
• be completed within 12 months of funding, minimum project period is 3 months (the ‘Project period’)
• undertake funded activities in NSW, and
• include only eligible expenditure.

You must address all the following assessment criteria in your application

Innovation

You must clearly demonstrate that the product:

• addresses a realistic and well-defined problem backed by industry research
• is new or significantly different to what already exists, and
• provides a solution that meets a market need.

Commercialisation

You must clearly demonstrate that the product:

• is commercially viable
• supports NSW Industry Policy Missions, and
• will deliver economic, environmental and/or social benefits to NSW.

Deliverability

You must clearly detail how you intend to deliver your project by outlining:

• the project outcomes, milestones, key activities, and risks
• the project team's capacity, along with appropriate management, commercial, professional, and technical expertise to deliver the project.

Step 1: Submitting an online application via SmartyGrants

You complete and submit an MVP application form in full via the SmartyGrants platform.

Step 2: Eligibility review

We will review all applications against the eligibility criteria. Applications that do not meet program eligibility will not be considered for competitive assessment.

Step 3: Competitive assessment

We will assess all applications that meet eligibility criteria against the assessment criteria of innovation, commercialisation and deliverability.

Step 4: independent panel review

We will engage an independent panel to review the assessment outcomes and make recommendations for funding based on the merit of the application and advice from the assessment team to the Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology who is the final decision maker.

Step 5: Grant decisions are made

The Minister makes the final decision on which applications are successful, based on the assessment recommendations. Funding will be allocated to applications in order of merit until the available funds for the round are fully allocated, or all eligible applications have been funded, whichever occurs first.

Step 6: We notify you of the outcome

We advise you of the outcome of your application.