The NSW Government is committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and this will require supporting industry to decarbonise. Critical to enabling this is the Net Zero Plan.  The Net Zero plan will fast-track emissions reductions over the next decade to combat climate change, grow the economy, create jobs and attract investment.

In this round, the Clean Technology Innovation commercial readiness stream will provide grants between $250,000 and $5 million per project for up to 50% of eligible project costs.

Reduce industrial emissions by:

• Repeatedly test the technical and commercial feasibility, viability and or compliance of a product or project.
• Accelerate and expand the research, development and commercialisation of low emissions technologies that show potential for becoming scalable, replicable and costeffective.
• Create an ecosystem that can develop the capability to drive repeated clean technology innovations.
• Attract world-class clean technology companies and innovations to domestic markets and convert NSW into a clean technology superpower.

To be eligible for funding, applicants must:

• hold an Australian Business Number (ABN)
• be an eligible organisation:
  • an Australian entity duly incorporated under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and hold and comply with all necessary authorisations that are material to the conduct of the business of the applicant(s)
  • a private or publicly funded research organisation applying through its appropriate commercialisation or technology transfer Department, which will establish a separate entity to commercialise the clean technology (such as a university spin-out)
  • a Commonwealth entity under section 10 of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (Cth)
  • an Australian state-or territory- owned body corporate, or a subsidiary of an Australian state- or territory- owned body corporate 
  • an Australian state, territory or local government or council
  • an international non-government organisation seeking to establish an Australian based entity to commercialise a clean technology not yet adopted in NSW.
• be the legal and beneficial owner of, or has all necessary rights to use, any intellectual property necessary to carry out the project
• hold or obtain all insurances required by law, including $20 million public liability insurance and worker's compensation
• materially comply with all:
  • obligations under employment contracts, industrial agreements and awards
  • codes of conduct and practice relevant to conditions of service and to the relations between the applicant and the employees employed by the applicant
  • applicable Workplace Health and Safety legislation.
• not be subject to any insolvency event including the subject of an order or resolution for winding up or dissolution (other than for the purposes of reconstruction or amalgamation) or the appointment of a receiver, liquidator, administer or similar
• not be listed on the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade sanctions list
• disclose any legal proceedings or investigations including litigation, arbitration, mediation or conciliation that are taking place, pending or (to the best of the applicant’s knowledge, after having made proper enquiry) threatened against the applicant or a related body corporate (as defined in the Corporations Act 2001 [Cth])
• disclose all Australian state, territory and/or commonwealth government grants applied for in relation to the project including history of grant funding (including both successful and unsuccessful applications)
• each application must have a lead applicant. Should the funding recipient differ from the lead applicant at any point of the application process/grant program, the lead applicant is required to explicitly indicate this in their application.

Eligibility criteria: eligible projects

To be eligible for funding, projects must:

• be based in NSW
• be applying for funding between $250,000 and $5 million 
• be expected to be complete within 3 years of commencement 
• have a technological readiness level (TRL) of between 6 - 9 
• have a commercial readiness index (CRI) of less than 4 
• align to a Decarbonisation Opportunity Cluster as outlined in the Department of Chief Scientist and Engineer’s Decarbonisation Innovation 2023 Study 
• have co-contribution funding arrangements of at least 1:1 between grant funding (from this grant) and other sources (e.g. applicant, collaborators, private or other public organisations). Projects that have a cash contribution from potential customers or an institutional investor will be viewed favourably during assessment. Higher cash contributions will also be viewed favourably. In-kind (non-financial) contributions are not eligible.

Explore examples of eligible projects by referring to section 4.4 in Guidelines.

Please see further Eligibility criteria's within the Guidelines.

• Email: netzeroinnovation@environment.nsw.gov.au