We will kick off. Thank you everyone for joining. Welcome. Welcome to AMRF Connect.

I can see some familiar faces and also some new ones. It’s great to see.

Firstly I would like to acknowledge that we are on the land of Dharug people, and also the Dharawal nation, and pay my respects to elders, past and present. I acknowledge that they’ve been innovating on these lands for many years before us.

I run this hub, AMRF Connect. This hub is looked after by collaboration partners, Western Sydney University, CSIRO and in close collaboration with AMRF.

So you have seen all the techs when you walk into the building. That is all AMRF, which is a combination of technology and expertise that have been made available by the State Government to improve and uplift the adoption of new technologies here in New South Wales, which makes it very relevant for us to speak about this fund. So, I’m really looking forward to hearing more about that from our partners at Investment NSW.

Some quick housekeeping. The bathrooms are located outside across the hallway, and the emergency exit is on this side of the hallway and just need to go down the stairs and out to the car park.

Essentially what I’m here to do is Connect, Innovate, Grow, is that’s the ethos. So, we run monthly networking events, educational event like this one. Often what I do is just try to solve the problem that you are dealing with now so that you can cynically get to the next problem on your journey and that’s with business growth with innovation, and also just advancing Australian manufacturing here with AMRF and in the context of Bradfield city.

So, this one of the events you’re at the moment, we also have co-working spaces and then we run tours of the facilities. So, if you haven’t been here before, I’d highly recommend reaching out to me, and I’ll share my contact details post event. And what we do is we can, if there is a specific technology that you’d like to speak about, or if you’d like to have a more of a deeper dive into what we do here in at the building, I’m happy to have sort of those one-on-one conversations with you. 

We also have Emma here. So, Emma is from the AMRF team. All the technology and deep tech conversations goes to her, in terms of those, those exciting things that you see through the glass.

So, with that, I will just do a quick shameless plug that we have a mailing list that comes out monthly, and also our next class is on AI Governance in Innovation which is on the 23rd of September. 

Now coming to this event, really exciting to hear of the movement on this front. I will not go into too much details because I know that we’ve got some really great speakers to speak about that, but it’s an example I guess of our close relationship with Investment NSW to collaborate on and the uplift of the manufacturing sector. So, with that, I will introduce Kate.

So, Kate is a Director at Investment NSW. I will also change over to Kate’s slides and move this forward.

This session is being recorded, so you might see us moving back and forth a little bit. So please bear with us when we do that.

Thank you Kate for joining us.

Everything clearly at her end. Just we are making recording of this today. So. We won’t record the Q&A section although we will take down notes for any key questions. So we can make sure those Q&A are added to our frequently asked questions list which will be shared on our website.

So, yes. Thank you Azmena very much for having us here today. I’m thrilled to be here for my first time at the manufacturing facility. What a fabulous design, just phenomenal to see, and see this place sort of starting to come to life and hearing that the Metro is you know gonna be in year after next, hopefully that runs on time. And I think we’ve got our first flights happening, what, next month. So yes, really exciting time, I think for Bradfield and Western Sydney more broadly.

So again, really thrilled to be here to talk about the Innovation Manufacturing Adoption Fund. I’m the Director of Innovation and Collaboration which is very nice title but basically my team overseas a raft of programs. A lot of the role out of the Innovation Blueprint initiatives. So, my team covers the minimum viable product grants. We’ve also recently launched a housing innovation in construction and housing innovation network challenge, aligned to the housing missions which Katie’s gonna give you a little bit of an overview of some of our other programs later.

And particularly manufacturing is one of the other big focus areas for the NSW Government. And I think it’s becoming more and more clear, and that’s great. I guess for all of you here in the room that it’s such a focus at this juncture. 

You may not have seen this morning it’s been an announcement about a new science innovation fund and Government putting in forward a hundred and fifty million dollars towards a fund which has yet to fully be scoped. So, it’s sort of early stage at the moment but it’s with, initially with universities sort of partnering model. So, watch this space on that front as well, but very exciting. And I think health, spoke to some of you in the room from the health sector is particularly also called out, from as part of that. And so that’s me.

We also got my colleague David Hoffmann joining me. He’s gonna take you through some of the, I guess, the policy landscape as well. David is from our Industry Missions team, so he very much does engagement with industry a bit more at arm’s length from our grants administrations team which is Katie, Hugh and Maki, somewhere there.

So, David is a great contact to have. He is all about supporting, I guess, more holistically industry growth and investment into NSW as well from some of those foreign companies. So, he sort of covers everything you know broad church beyond the grants programs as well.

Katie, as I mentioned, within my team, she is overseeing this program the Innovative Manufacturing Adoption Fund and some of the housing initiatives. So, Katie will join us here, and also knows some of the more detailed questions regarding the program scope. 

So again, we’ve touched a little bit on this being part of the NSW Government priorities. Last year we had a whole raft of policy, a suite of policy initiatives released. I guess the key lynch pin one was the NSW Industry Policy which has explicitly called out three missions of Net Zero, Local Manufacturing, and also Housing. So, we have very much sort of linked up all our policy documents. 

We have the Trade and Investment Strategy. David will talk you through some of these, and again a bit of more detail. And then the Innovation Blueprint is the other one that has specifically called out some initiatives relating to manufacturing and the need to sort of you know drive the productivity, the job creation and manufacturing capability within the state. You know, the Government ‘s now leaned in put some funding forward for these programs to help drive those outcomes.

So, we're here to help build the capabilities and capacity for you to participate in high value markets, build those solid supply chains and major and you know access those major procurement opportunities as well. 

And I think we all know some of the value of the to the state, but David's got some more stats on that in a minute. But obviously we've got also got some targets that have been called out. So we've got the real growth in New South Wales GVA for manufacturing by 2031, gross value ad equal to or greater than the New South Wales gross state product between 2031 and 2040 and at least 50% minimum content for rolling stock by 2034.

So, the government is really clearly sort of setting its agenda across a raft of sectors I guess that would then be you know leveraging advanced manufacturing technologies and practices.

I'll pass to David now to sort of just give you a little bit more on the policy context and then we'll take you through the grant in a bit more detail.

[clears throat] So, I don't want to I mean, I know policy is probably a key area that everyone here is interested in, so we're going to skip through it pretty quickly, but I think the idea is helping everyone to understand sort of why we're doing what we're doing and how it fits in with the objectives of government, because ultimately when we're building programs and designing programs, it's aligned with the policy that outlines what our priorities are as New South Wales government. 

So sort of has to fit in and we've got to understand, you know, we have these objectives how do we actually deliver them on the ground, and Kate mentioned her team is the one that's pulling these things together in the background going, what do we think is going to help us actually achieve these outcomes, my team is the one that's then promoting those programs helping industry to understand, do we fit in this are we eligible for this, you know, how do we apply what sort of projects can we do, because sometimes you go to those websites and as much as we try and make things as easy and simple to understand as possible. 

Even I get a bit confused sometimes with the language. So, part of my reason for being here today is also to just give you guys my business card and say, if anybody has questions about what you see on the New South Wales government website, come to me first. You don't have to search for is there a contact or is there a random sign up that I have to do. I'm always happy to have a chat and take a call from anybody.

Kate mentioned the innovation blueprint and trade investment strategies. Those are sort of two of those three major policies that we released last year. This fund that we're talking about today, the funding for that part of that innovation blueprint funding as well. So looking at upskilling and driving innovation within New South Wales. And then we've got the trade and investment strategy which is more of a focus on, how do we build that export market? How do we help New South Wales-based businesses and companies access international markets and trade? And we've got a whole team in Investment New South Wales that focuses explicitly on that as well. 

If you want to talk details or anything on the policies, happy to chat with you later, but I'll just skip through. This sort of is the thinking behind why we do what we're doing. It's, you know, resilience, productivity, delivery being those headlines. So, we want those stronger local supply chains. Obviously, we've got folks from industry in the room today. We want to support that so that we can not rely on, you know, overseas knowledge. We can strengthen our local supply chains and ecosystems here, which means we're not as reliant on issues happening overseas. 

We obviously have a focus on productivity. And I think if you've ever listened to the news, you've probably heard around all the stats about New South Wales productivity and how we need to drive productivity. And so there's always going to be a focus for us on not just bringing more jobs to the state, but raising those existing jobs and being more productive. 

And through funds like this, we want to scale that advanced materials and clean manufacturing, those specific areas where we see that there's opportunity for us to be more productive and smarter in the way that we do things. 

And then in addition to manufacturing being one of those missions that we have in the industry policy, the other two missions are net zero and housing. And we see that manufacturing underpinning both of those other missions, because if we can locally manufacture, get smarter and more productive, we can deliver on our net zero objectives and our housing objectives more easily within the state.

So, it's all sort of connected here. 

And here's some stats around where we sit as a state. We are probably the most obviously, we have the largest population in Australia, but we also have the largest manufacturing base in Australia, and some of those other states are nipping at our heels a bit, but you can see some stats around how many folks are employed in the sector manufacturing, what our export sizes were last year, and how much of a contribution New South Wales makes to those national manufacturing targets as well. 

So, this all ties into why we're doing what we're doing here.

I'm gonna hand over to Kate again, but I'll be in the room. I'm here for Q&A. Happy to chat with anyone around the role that my team plays and how we're sort of that first port of entry into New South Wales government and here to sort of disseminate and assist with all these different funds and programs as well. So, come see me and ask some questions when you get them.

Thanks, David. Okay. So, now we're going to get into the nitty-gritty of the recently announced fund, the innovative manufacturing adoption fund. 

So, this fund, I guess, is going to be a two-stage program. So, at the moment, it's stage one, and this is to support manufacturing businesses to investigate advanced manufacturing technology adoption and build a pathway to improve productivity, competitive, competitiveness, and growth. The fund aims to strengthen the capability, productivity, and competitiveness of New South Wales manufacturers by accelerating the adoption of advanced technologies, processes, and systems. 

So, we have, I think there's quite a lot of information on this page, but at stage one, we're going to have grants of a million dollars, sorry, it's a bucket of a million dollars. And we've got grants of between 10 to $50,000 available to help manufacturers access new technologies and manufacturing capabilities. 

So what sort of projects can be funded here? It is, feasibility studies, business case development, pro pilot project process testing, equipment assessment and certification activities. 

And who are we targeting? Will the fund targets manufacturers with current or intended capabilities to supply products and manufacturing services to the following sectors? So, they're all listed there in the middle there, the target sectors, which have been outlined in the innovation, industry policy and the New South Wales trade investment strategy that David touched on. 

So, I guess just to also touch on there, we've mentioned the stage one and the stage two. So this stage is very much focused I guess at the earlier end of the spectrum. We want businesses to think and to do their homework on what the technologies are that might best suit their business and to undertake some of that research rather than sort of diving in headfirst into an investment in equipment or capacity capability that might not be the best fit.

So we want to make sure it aligns and they've done that you know we're really setting everyone up for success. 

So that was some of the feedback during the development of this program was that we decided to take on board that feedback and structure the program as such that this this earlier stage which is a smaller bucket as I mentioned it's only 1 million out of the six million total to help to get those outcomes in terms of getting businesses to undertake that early feasibility certification that I just mentioned. 

So we will be launching a stage two. We can't provide too much detail on that at this point in time. There's some pro we're taking that through our sort of processes within government, but we're hoping early in the new year, and we're sort of staggered that to align with the end of stage one. 

So, while you won't necessarily need to have done stage one to potentially get stage two, we have sort of structured as you know this sets you up for success hopefully to then leverage the second bucket of funding, which will then be the implementation stage of those technologies and processes you've undertaken the work on. 

So we've got the 6 million I've touched on over, over three years. So, we've just kicked it off this year with the stage one has a total allocation of 1 million which I've mentioned to help eligible manufacturers investigate advanced manufacturing technology adoption. 

Grants range from 10,000 to 50,000, and it is a match grant program. So, this one, we have some grants within government at the moment that are there's no co-contribution, but you do need to show that the project you're going to be putting some skin in the game, as well. So, for instance, a $100,000 project, we would then take half of that. If it's 150, we would only we'd cap it at the 50,000. 

So, that's how it's structured. And it obviously has to align with the eligible project costs within the approved project budget which you'd present and submit to us as part of your application. 

So, we've got particular target technologies we've called out in the guidelines. So, again, do take a look at closer in depth at the guidelines which are available on the web page. We've got a link here as well, a QR code I believe which you can scan a bit later on so you can which takes you directly to the page. 

But the target technologies are additive manufacturing, precision machining, electronics and mechatronic manufacturing, advanced materials and processing, robotics and automation and digital manufacturing and industry 4.0 capabilities, as well as advanced quality and inspection systems. 

So, in terms of eligible businesses, you need to be obviously it's a New South Wales state government grant. You need to be headquartered and operating your facility here in New South Wales. So that's sort of a non-negotiable as part of the at the eligibility stage. 

We've structured it for it to be targeted to businesses which have some have some scale already. So we've said it's been structured around 10 to 100 full-time employees. This doesn't include contractors. So, we need you to sort of you know it's not early we've got some other programs, for instance, the minimum viable product which is another one we oversee which is more at the startup end of the spectrum. This one is for businesses that have some of that scale already and are ready to sort of take things to the next level. 

The business, your business needs to also have turnover of a million in the last two financial years. So that's 1 million per those years each, again to show that you've got some traction and capability to be able to then you know implement these technologies and really drive the outcomes we're hoping to achieve in the ecosystem. 

And obviously we've touched on the target sectors, but just to jump back, that's the sectors there listed on target technologies. 

And we've got the target sectors. Sorry, that's one slide back. Target sectors there in the middle there. The construction and building products, clean energy products, transport and rolling stock, defence and aerospace, health and medtech manufacturing, digital technologies with advanced electronics, mining equipment technology services, agriculture and food and beverage manufacturing. So quite a broad church of target sectors, as we know, manufacturing cuts across virtually everything. 

In terms of the eligible projects, so your project, we are seeking you to partner in this this grant program. Again, we want you to get some expertise and get some, I guess, a third party to give you some advice in terms of what's going to be best for your business for adopting these innovative technologies. 
So that is part of your one of the criteria for the eligible projects. you'd need to be presenting your choice of external consultant that, you know, obviously aligns with the technology and capability you're looking to implement. 

The eligible activities, which I touched on earlier, include the feasibility study, a business case, pilot prototyping is included here. We have some other programs which don't include prototyping, but this one does. Testing new equipment or software or certification and compliance. So again, quite a broad range of eligible activities. 

It's not as sort of cap to one as some of our other programs are, and you need to produce an evidence-based report on technical and commercial viability of the target technology and pathway for adoption, which I believe, Hugh, we'd have presented at the quiddle stage, is that right, yes, thank you.

So, we as I've mentioned, we'd cover 50% of the project budget up to a capped amount of $50,000, and then that needs to be at least 75% of that budget needs to be puted towards engaging that external partner or provider, and 25% may be used for your own internal costs such as wages and projects. 

We again have got some industry feedback here, but we want things to sort of move fairly quickly. So, we have said that projects need to be completed within four months to undertake that piece of work, and again because this is a two-stage project, we do also want to get going with stage two. So, we want to make sure that those that you know are earlier in the stage and undertaking this work have that time to complete, but you know do that in a fairly truncated kind of way, and then set themselves up for success when the second stage of funding is released. 

Now this is a lot on a slide, so I do suggest you go and have a closer look at the guidelines, but we just thought we'd quickly pop up the competitive assessment criteria, and I didn't actually mention that at the start that this is a competitive process. 

So, we have a period where applications, as you probably are aware, are open now closes on the 6th of October, and then you'll be assessed against the other applications that we receive. So, this one is competitive. 

We have some others which Katie will mention shortly which aren't competitive, but more in the housing sort of space. So, competitive assessment criteria that we'll be looking at is the impactful upgrade. So, showing that your target technology will overcome a capability gap in your current manufacturing operations, excuse me. That you're going to produce production efficiencies. We've called some out there, and that there's a commercial benefit to doing so. 

That's obviously the highest waiting. We want it to be, you know, again, we don't want it to be something you're investing in or you're doing the thinking about is if this is actually going to meet the intent of what, you know, you're, you're seeking to achieve. 

The project quality and delivery is the second criterion which is weighted at 30%. And you need to demonstrate the project will assess the feasibility of the target technology adoption including a clear methodology methodology to evaluate costs, risks, benefits and implementation requirements, realistic timelines and milestones, and a fit for purpose budget that represents value for money. 

And confirm that the external consultant has the relevant expertise and experience in the target technology or the manufacturing assessment. So again, I sort of touched on that it's got to be that alignment that we're not we need the consultant to sort of have that the correct expertise.

And obviously government programs. So, we do have alignment we've touched on some of those policies. I think again quite easy to, you know, align yourselves with the mission of manufacturing, but love to understand exactly the nature of your business a bit more and what your I guess your contribution to the New South Wales economy more broadly can be.

In terms of how the grant is structured. So, it's a two-stage payment. So, you'd get majority on signing a funding agreement with New South Wales government if you're successful. So, you get the 80% upfront of the 50,000 and then as touched on the you get the second instalment of 20% at the final milestone hurdle which is at the project completion. 

So, again we've said maximum the four months, you'd need to submit your completion report and provide sufficient proof of your expenditure as you sort of indicated at the starting date. 

So how to apply? If you want to grab your phones, you can scan the QR code here.

Otherwise, we will share these these materials, or you can search for the innovative manufacturing adoption fund. There is now a centralised New South Wales government grants finder website, if you haven't, if you're not aware of that. You can go and search for any grant. So, you can search for, we call the IMAF, because it's a bit of a mouthful, but the innovative manufacturing adoption fund on that site to get the further details to get a copy of the guidelines, all the supporting material. There's some exemplars and templates as well on there, funding agreements and the like that you can take a look at to make sure that the program aligns well with you know your business and your business's needs. 

So you've also then got to show the proof of your number of employees between 10 and 100 employees which could include evidence such as a business activity statement, a payroll tax statement or a letter from an accountant would be most that we'd accept there. 

The financial statements as I touched on to sort of demonstrate that turnover of greater than a million in two last financial years.

And the project proposal. So again, a project proposal from the external consultant or manufacturing service provider that you're seeking to engage setting out details of your proposed stage one project. 

So that's it from me. 

We've got again an inquiries email if you want to jot that down or take a screenshot if you've got any questions to send through to my team. We'll do our best to answer. 

Obviously there's sort of an equity requirement within our grants administration that we may share questions more generally as part of the FAQs if it's something that relates to I guess anyone might have that question.

And we can't answer spec, you know, there's certain questions that we won't be able to answer because this is a grants process, and it's competitive that might give you, you know, an unfair advantage. 

So again, bear with us, but we will come back to you if you send through any questions um to that inbox.

And I'll just pass to Katie who's just going to quickly touch on some of the government programs, but I'm sure there'll be a few questions as well, so I've got plenty of time for that.

Thanks Kate. Hi, I'm Katie. So, what else is on the menu, you ask? 

We have other grants that you might be interested in or know someone in your community that might be applicable. 

So, the housing innovation construction fund was launched on June 29th and that will roll over for a full entire year. So, plenty of time to get your last minute exam in. No, I'm kidding. 

So, a program providing um up 20,000 to 150,000 in [clears throat] grant support to support domestic and international modern methods of construction manufacturers. So, assessing and adapting housing solutions to be compliant with New South Wales building standards. So obviously housing is a critical issue in New South Wales and space. So, we're trying to address that by encouraging modern methods of construction to take place. So, that closes May 27. However, if the funds all get allocated, this is also one important thing. It's a non-competitive grant. So, if you're deemed eligible, then you're deemed eligible, and you get funding. 

Other parts we just closed HIN, housing innovation network. So that closed this Wednesday. So, in case you're wondering why I didn't mention that, it closed just a day before. 

Boosting business innovation program provides opportunities for innovators to work with world-class research and universities. So, that's been going on for a while. 

And TECH vouchers as well is basically an opportunity for funding to collaborate with research project projects between SMEs and participating New South Wales universities really helping fill that gap where SMEs sometimes spin out of universities but don't have that commercial commercial sort of lens on their innovation. 

So, they can receive up to 50% of their project costs in match funding capped at 75,000. 

The most famous one, well may not be but in my circles, minimum viable product. So, that's really giving sort of bootstrapped early-stage startup founders support in those tough early days to basically minimal viable product is proving a case for a business case for your product or service. So, New South Wales government has done a few rounds this year for minimum. They've all closed, but we will be obviously continuing the program. 

We don't have a set date when that will reopen but it will be soon. 

So, basically up to 20 to 75K that is a competitive program, but it's helped companies to move forward on their sort of journey to become more market ready and commercial with innovative products. 

Obviously, this is a New South Wales grant so the business must be based in New South Wales. Less than 10 employees is absolutely fine. We expect that for startups with a less than 400k turnover. Even better if you hold the IP and commercial rights. Sometimes IP is a bit expensive but that will help your application. 
So, there's sort of the other parts of the fostering innovation branch in terms of grants that I we wanted to touch on today. 

We thought we'd do a favour to some other in government department. 

The net zero planning grant we thought we'd just mention that closes November this year. An opportunity for New South Wales businesses to see receive $25,000 in funding to cover up 50% of the cost of strategic planning and to progress them onto the path to net zero. We don't know the ins and outs of this one because it's actually not our grant, but we thought we'd just mention it today, because it's currently live. We'll leave that there for a second in case anyone wants to scan the QR code. 

And that's basically the formal proceedings. 

Now it's for question time.