The Australian Government's Innovation Report

Table 9: Sectoral distribution of Commercial Ready grants, 2005-06
Code
Sector
Applications
approved (no.)
Applications
approved ($M) %
A Agriculture, forestry and fishing 10 $13.48 7%
B Mining 4 $6.54 4%
C Manufacturing 76 $91.09 50%
D Electricity, gas and water supply 2 $2.40 1%
E Construction 2 $2.26 1%
F Wholesale trade 1 $0.22 0%
I Transport and storage 2 $0.67 1%
J Communication services 5 $4.07 2%
K Finance and insurance 3 $6.20 3%
L Property and business services 46 $41.28 23%
O Health and community services 12 $13.53 7%
P Cultural and recreational services 1 $0.45 0%
Q Personal and other services 1 $0.79 1%
Total 165 $182.96 100%
More information about the Commercial Ready Scheme can be found at: www.industry.gov.au
Commercialising Emerging Technologies Programme
The Commercialising Emerging Technologies (COMET) Programme helps commercialise innovative products,
processes and services by providing individuals, early-growth stage companies and spin-off companies with tailored
support. It is a competitive programme that provides financial assistance and access to business services in the
areas of strategic management, business planning, market research, intellectual property management, and proving
a technology (including a working prototype).
A key objective of COMET is to encourage knowledge creation and transfer to increase the enterprise’s capacity
for achieving innovation and commercialisation outcomes. A major aspect of COMET assistance is access to
a business adviser to help customers with a tailored business assistance plan.
COMET can also help individuals and companies increase human capacity building in areas such as management,
finance, marketing and sales.
A $100 million extension of COMET was announced under Backing Australia’s Ability – Building our Future
through Science and Innovation to fund the programme until 2010-11.
In 2005-06, COMET had 172 new applications approved, assisted 53 enterprises with 80 capital raising outcomes
with a value of $56 million, and launched 20 manufacturing or new products and services. Thirty COMET
customers were from regional or outer metropolitan areas and 26 customers commercialised university/public
sector research sourced innovations. For 2006-07 around 170 new customers will be supported.
In 2005-06, 14 COMET customers successfully formed 19 strategic alliances or joint ventures, four entered into
licensing agreements and 28 into some other form of distribution or other agreement to commercialise innovations.
Since the inception of the programme in 1999, COMET has resulted in over 700 strategic alliances, joint ventures,
licensing and other collaborative outcomes.
62 Backing Australia’s Ability