Innovators receive quarter of a million funding boost

Local businesses have collected nearly $245,000 in funding from the Western Australian government’s innovation vouchers program.

THirteen small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) received grants of up to $20,000 towards engaging professional skills and services, with the aim of commercialising their innovations.

Science and innovation minister John Day said the program had received a large number of applications and selected the most promising and viable.

“The innovation vouchers program aims to assist WA-based small to medium-sized enterprises to achieve success on their path to commercialisation”.

“The Department of Commerce was inundated with applications for the first round of the innovation vouchers program which I believe indicates a necessity for a program such as this,” he said.

Winning applicants include Infra Tech, a specialist in geotechnical and pavement engineering, for its new controlled dynamic compaction device and offshore drilling and construction engineering provider, Tensa Equipment, for its dynamic motion sensor.

Other winners include medical company Oz Sonotek’s needle, to improve cataract surgery, and a wetsuit to ward off sharks, developed by Dunbar Harper.

The announcement of the selected grantees coincides with the opening of second round applications which will close on the 2^nd of March.