The northern end of the Sunshine Coast has proven itself as Queensland’s entrepreneurial capital if the latest round of Accelerating Commercialisation funding is anything to go by.
State-wide only three businesses made the cut and they’re all based within 15 kilometres of each other.
The Noosaville, Sunshine Beach and Peregian Springs businesses will share in more than $667,000 in grants to help turn their exciting ideas into marketable products.
Unattended Technology in Noosaville will receive $372,204 to conduct trials and secure IP rights for their cloud-based software platform which enables a smarter way of managing unattended “internet of things”.
Champion Life Education in Sunshine Beach will receive $255,000 to commercialise its “virtual mentoring” platform to motivate & support school students to complete physical & health challenges.
While Provectus Algae in Peregian Springs will get $40,000 to further develop a revolutionary algae lighting system for the global aquaculture market.
Federal MPs Llew O’Brien (Wide Bay) and Ted O’Brien (Fairfax) said the businesses were proof of the region’s thriving entrepreneurial spirit.
“This support to Champion Life Education, Unattended Technology and Provectus Algae will encourage other local businesses to think outside the box, and come up with ways to improve their business.
“I strongly encourage all businesses in our community to partner with the government to enhance their success, both locally and globally,” Llew O’Brien said.
Member for Fairfax Ted O’Brien said he had long believed in the region’s entrepreneurial genius.
“There isn’t a more entrepreneurial region in Australia than the Sunshine Coast and its success in securing grants like these is evidence our region leads the way when it comes to new, innovative projects that can be commercialised and taken to market,” Ted O’Brien said.
“Take Provectus Algae for instance their revolutionary lighting system will increase algae productivity, reduce operational costs and reduce lighting power consumption.”
Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation Craig Laundy said the latest offers of AC grants was very encouraging as it demonstrated how entrepreneurial Australians play a pivotal role in driving innovation in Australia.
“The grants are part of the Government’s Entrepreneurs’ Programme, and to date, 328 grants worth more than $163 million have been provided to Australian businesses to commercialise their ground breaking technologies,” said Minister Laundy.
For more information about how to apply for an Entrepreneurs’ Programme Accelerating Commercialisation grant, go to www.business.gov.au/ep