If you run an innovative business and you are trying to take a product from the lab to the market, funding is rarely the only thing you need. You also need a clear-eyed view of whether the idea is commercially viable, and a path to get it there. The federal Industry Growth Program (IGP) was built around exactly that gap.
The IGP pairs free expert advice with the chance to apply for a matched grant. It is aimed at startups and small to medium enterprises working on commercialisation or early growth projects that sit inside the government’s priority areas for the economy. Here is how it works and how to tell whether your business is a candidate.
What the Industry Growth Program Funds
The IGP has two parts, and the order matters. First comes the advisory service. An assigned adviser works with you on your commercialisation strategy, tests your assumptions and produces a report with recommendations. That advice is provided at no charge to eligible businesses.
The second part is grant funding. Businesses that have been through the advisory stage and received an advisory report may then choose to apply for a matched grant. Grants are not automatic. They are merit-assessed by an independent committee, so a strong project and a credible plan still matter.
The Advice-Then-Grant Structure
This sequence is the defining feature of the program. You do not apply for money first and work out the strategy later. You engage an adviser, sharpen the commercial case, and only then move toward a grant application if it makes sense.
There is a real benefit to this order. The advisory work helps you understand where your project genuinely sits, what the risks are and whether a grant is the right tool at all. For many businesses that clarity is worth as much as the funding.
It also means a grant outcome is never guaranteed. Receiving advice does not entitle you to a grant, and not every business that completes the advisory stage will be eligible to apply or will succeed if they do.
Grant Size: What You Can Apply For
The grants are matched, which means you contribute funding alongside the government. There are two streams, and the band you fall into depends on how far along your project is.
- Early-Stage Commercialisation grants currently range from $50,000 to $250,000. This stream covers the journey from feasibility studies through to prototyping.
- Commercialisation and Growth grants currently range from $100,000 to $5M. This stream covers prototyping through to market-readiness stages.
Treat those figures as a guide and confirm the current bands against the program guidelines before you plan around them. Grant amounts, matched-funding ratios and eligible costs are set in the official guidelines and can change between rounds.
Who Is Eligible
The IGP is built for innovative SMEs, so the eligibility rules combine a size test, an entity test and a priority-area test.
On size, your business needs a combined annual turnover of less than $20M for each of the three financial years before you lodge your application. You also need an Australian Business Number, you need to be registered for GST and you need to be the right type of entity. That generally means a company incorporated in Australia, a co-operative or an incorporated trustee. Confirm the current entity and turnover rules against the official source, as they are the kind of detail that gets revised.
Your project also has to be innovative and at the right stage, either commercialisation or early growth. A purely operational expansion with no innovation component is unlikely to fit.
The Priority Areas Your Project Must Fit
The IGP is aligned to the priority areas of the $15B National Reconstruction Fund. Your project needs to sit inside one of them. The seven areas are:
- Value-add in resources
- Value-add in agriculture, forestry and fisheries
- Transport
- Medical science
- Renewables and low-emission technologies
- Defence capability
- Enabling capabilities
These areas are deliberately broad. A food-processing innovation, a battery technology, a medical device or a transport-logistics breakthrough could all qualify, provided the project is genuinely innovative and commercially focused. If you are unsure where your project lands, that is one of the first things an adviser can help you map.
How to Engage an Adviser
The pathway starts with an application for the advisory service, submitted through the program’s online portal. Eligible candidates are then contacted, and the published guide indicates this happens within a short window of a small number of working days. From there, the adviser works with you on your commercialisation strategy and report.
One important note on timing. The IGP advisory service has been paused to new applications at various points, so the intake status is worth checking before you build a plan around it. Confirm the current round and intake status on business.gov.au so you know whether applications are open right now or whether you should prepare in the meantime.
How Foothold Advisory Can Help
The IGP rewards businesses that come in with a clear commercial story, a genuine innovation and a project that maps cleanly to a priority area. Getting that framing right before you engage is where a lot of the value sits.
We can run a Funding Health Check on your business to test your fit against the IGP and other federal and state programs, and help you prepare for the advisory stage. We can also screen your project against the current eligibility rules and priority areas so you are not guessing. Book a grant eligibility review with Foothold Advisory and we will map your most credible funding pathways.
General information only. This article provides general information about Australian grants, incentives and tax concepts and is current as at its publication date. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not tax, financial or grant-eligibility advice. Foothold Advisory is not a registered tax agent. Grant programs, eligibility rules, funding amounts and round dates change frequently and can close without notice. Before acting, confirm current details with the relevant program authority (business.gov.au, the ATO or the administering department) and seek advice for your situation.