R&D Tax Concession
Introduced in 1986, the R&D Tax Concession is a broad-based incentive that provides eligible companies conducting experimental R&D with a concessional 125% tax deduction for expenditure relating to those activities, and a 175% deduction for qualifying ‘incremental’ R&D expenditure. The R&D Tax Offset facility allows qualifying companies to receive a refundable tax offset in lieu of the 125% / 175% deduction. The cash value of the R&D Tax Offset is 37.5c in the dollar for eligible R&D expenditure and 52.5c in the dollar for ‘incremental’ R&D expenditure.

The Climate- and Energy-Grants Landscape:
Research & Development & Implementation
The Government has allocated funds to a number of grants to encourage the research, development, commercialisation and implementation of new and improved climate- and energy-related technologies. Our presenter will provide an overview of a selection of these grants, with a particular focus on grants targeted to the SME sector.

EMDG
The Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme is the Australian Government's principal financial assistance program for aspiring and current exporters. To access the scheme for the first time, businesses need to have spent $10,000 over two years on eligible export marketing expenses. The scheme supports a wide range of industry sectors and products, including inbound tourism and the export of intellectual property and know-how, including ‘Clean Technology’ focussed companies.

COMET
The Australian Government introduced the COMET program in November 1999 to aid the commercialisation of innovative products, processes and services. COMET is a competitive, merit based program that supports early-growth stage and spin off companies to successfully commercialise their innovations.