Universities affected by the termination of Australia's Economic Accelerator program

Question

Senator KOVACIC: We've also had feedback from universities that there were significant projects across the Commonwealth that were on the cusp of commercialisation. They intended to lodge applications but will not proceed now. Do you have any information for us as to how many projects might not have been lodged or how many people that had expressed an interest in lodging may also be affected on top of that? Ms Morton: I might ask Mr Puckett if he's got any further insights beyond the people who lodged an application. We certainly have people who have applied previously and may not have been successful that we engage with and give feedback to. That might already be an existing cohort of people who might not have been successful in previous rounds that are on our radar, as it were. Mr Puckett, you may have something to add. Mr Puckett: Nothing concrete-we certainly have anecdotal advice. One feature of the AA program was the priority manager function, which were a group of technical experts that we had engaged to work with applicants. There were also industry and research officers to support this process. As part of their engagement, they've had extensive contact with people who were interested in future rounds of the program. One thing we've done since the announcement is adjust the duty statement of those priority managers to be very proactive in terms of reaching out to anyone who may have been interested and make those connections that Ms Morton alluded to. I probably don't have anything concrete for you, but we certainly have done whatever we can to connect to those people. Ms Morton: We activated the channels that we have. We have our forums where we engage with the university sector in particular and their research side of things. We have that existing channel that we can engage with them on to respond to any questions that any particular proponent might have. Senator KOVACIC: Do you know how many universities were affected by the program being terminated? Ms Morton: I may have to take that on notice and might be able to come back to you relatively quickly on that. Senator KOVACIC: That's fine. Thank you.

Answer

Please see the attached PDF.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• SQ26-000722.pdf (opens in a new tab)