Industry discussion on proposed Innovation Grants Programme

Innovation Grants Programme

On 26 May 2022, Minister Woods announced the introduction of two new grants to support New Zealand businesses undertaking innovation, complementing the Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI). Together these mechanisms aim to increase the rate of innovation occurring in New Zealand.

MBIE and Callaghan Innovation are undertaking public consultation on the draft design specifications for these new grants. The intention is that these grants will be open for applications in September 2022.

Ārohia / Innovation Trailblazer Grant

Ārohia / the Innovation Trailblazer Grant will support businesses performing non-R&D tasks associated with innovation. It will be targeted at businesses pursuing innovation opportunities that are most likely to generate benefits to others in the innovation system – more specifically, those that are either pushing the global innovation frontier or helping bring New Zealand up to the global innovation frontier.

A seed grant will support innovative ideas at an earlier stage that have the potential to meet the criteria for the full grant at a later stage. This seed funding is anticipated to provide co-funding for businesses to support market validation and/ develop a proof-of-concept.

Key Questions:

• What are they types of opportunities the grant should be targeting to maximise benefits across the New Zealand innovation system?
• When in a business’s development journey would this grant have the most impact?
• Which non-R&D tasks (and what costs) should the grant support?
• How to treat recipients that exit New Zealand after receiving grant?

New to R&D Grant

The New to R&D Grant aims to increase the number of New Zealand businesses performing R&D. Recognising that businesses face high costs and steep learning curves in establishing an R&D programme, this grant is targeted at businesses that are new to R&D – both start-ups and established businesses. It will provide temporary support for these businesses to get a R&D programme underway and prepare to apply for the RDTI. In addition to subsidising the business’s expenditure on R&D at a similar level to the RDTI, this grant would provide support for the one-time costs associated with building its R&D capability.

The grant is intended to provide a smooth on-ramp to the RDTI once the business has established its R&D programme and uses eligibility criteria based on the RDTI to simplify this transition. As part of the grant support, Callaghan Innovation will provide support to help the business to become RDTI-ready, working with them to identify which activities would be eligible for the RDTI, how to take an activity-based approach to recording its R&D, and how to report R&D activities.

Key Questions:

• What activities do new-to-R&D businesses undertake in establishing an R&D programme?
• What one-time costs do businesses face in building a R&D programme?
• What support do new-to-R&D businesses need to be ready to access the RDTI?
• Which aspects of the RDTI R&D definition are difficult to satisfy for new-to-R&D businesses?

Event info:

• Date: Tuesday 28 June
  
• Time: 9:00am - 9:50am
  
• Location: Online
  

Supported by: MBIE