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Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price has announced the latest round of Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grants worth a total of $2.3 million to support the next-generation capability of the ADF.
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Minister Price said four South Australian projects would receive $2.3 million in total, which would allow them to purchase specialised tools and equipment.
"The Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grants encourage greater participation by Australia’s small businesses in our ambitious defence industry agenda," Minister Price said.
Armor Australia will use its grant to purchase specialist tooling to produce the lightweight combat helmets, which will provide a unique export opportunity for the business and enable the expansion of the company’s infrastructure and staffing.
Another grant recipient, AEM Consolidated, will use the funding to improve how the company is repairing and overhauling motors for defence ships and submarines.
"We want to maximise small business involvement in delivering our $200 billion build-up of defence capability, because this approach helps create new jobs right across Australia," Minister Price added.
The Defence Industrial Capability Plan introduces the new Sovereign Industrial Capability Assessment Framework to provide a repeatable methodology to identify Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities.
In approaching development of the priorities, the government focused on a definition of sovereign industrial capability around access to, or control over, the essential skills, technology, intellectual property, financial resources and infrastructure within the defence industrial base as required.
The initial Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities are the result of a rigorous assessment framework that looked at the strategic, capability and resources dimensions of industrial sovereignty – and made judgements based on Defence needs.
The government’s priority is to provide the Australian Defence Force with cost-effective, cutting-edge capability while also maximising Australian industry involvement.
The Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grants launched on 21 November 2018 provide funding to industry to ensure that Australian SMEs have the appropriate capacity and resilience to support Defence's most critical capabilities.
The intended outcome of the grants is to grow a robust and resilient Australian SME industrial base capable of providing a significant contribution to the Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities announced in the 2018 Defence Industrial Capability Plan.
Priorities are described at the capability level with a focus on technologies rather than companies or products. This approach will encourage innovation and new developments across the Integrated Investment Program capability streams and individual projects.
Effective implementation of the priorities requires them to be embedded early into strategic planning and Defence capability planning processes and across the capability life cycle.
The grants program includes a number of features, namely:
- Grants of up to $1 million will be available to buy, construct, install or fund capital equipment, including specialist software and security infrastructure, and any design, non-recurring engineering costs, workforce training and accreditation directly related to the project;
- A cap of $3 million on total funding applies for a business over a three-year period and 50:50 matched funding is required; and
- This is a four-year grants program; available from 2018-19 to 2021-22.
Applications for Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grants can be made at any time, submitted through the Centre for Defence Industry Capability website here.
