Dear research commercialisation stakeholders,
We want to thank you for the high levels of enthusiasm you have expressed for Australia’s Economic Accelerator (AEA) Seed Tranches One and Two, and for your attendance at our AEA webinars and information sessions. The feedback provided within these sessions, as well as the enquiries received during the application process, have been extremely valuable in developing the formal AEA programs of Ignite and Innovate and have steered our development of the guidelines for Ignite and Innovate.
We are excited by the final numbers of submitted proposals for both AEA Seed Tranches One (206) and Two (156) and are impressed with the response and engagement of industry partners. We have been hard at work behind the scenes, and all eligible proposals from the first Tranche have been assigned to our expert assessors while we review the eligibility of Tranche Two applications. We expect that assessments for Tranche One will be completed in the coming weeks and will be followed by the shortlisting of successful proposals. We anticipate notifying successful applicants in the last week of June. A similar process is to be undertaken for Tranche Two proposals once assessments have been completed.
While the Seed elements have been allocated a total of $10 million, we received applications seeking approximately $55 million for Tranche One, and $42 million for Tranche Two. In light of this, we have a tough job in selecting successful projects and have been rigorously applying the eligibility criteria in the assessment process. We would like to reiterate that AEA Seed represents the pilot phase of the AEA Ignite program which will commence in the second half of 2023. The AEA program, including AEA Innovate, will run over the next 11 years. As such, proposals deemed ineligible or not successful in this pilot phase are encouraged to take on board the advice that will be provided and consider engaging with AEA Ignite when it opens in coming months.
Our ongoing goal is to progress innovative proposals and to work together with the sector and industry to further enhance Australia’s research commercialisation ecosystem.
We thank you for your patience and look forward to continuing to work together on this initiative over coming months.
Kind Regards,
Dom English
First Assistant Secretary
Research
Australian Government Department of Education