The startups guide to nailing grant applications...and how to know when to handover

It’s a tougher moment for scaleups today, with the venture capital (VC) investment in Australian startups dropping from US$5.44 billion in 2022 to US$2.54 billion in 2023. Many VCs are doubling down on their current investments, choosing to shelve new investment plans. Non-dilutive funding is becoming increasingly attractive – not only does it enable longer runways and faster milestones, but it helps retain equity for the current owners and founders. It’s the perfect complement to VC because it builds value in their investments without diluting them too. 

But what remains the same is everyone wants to know what funding is available – and how to get it. Here’s Camilla’s eight steps for tackling grant applications efficiently and with greater chances of success.

1. Pick the right grants

Approach your grant strategy like you would your business strategy. Focus on the best fit; value, activities and objectives alignment, speed of decision, and highest probability of success. Get your target list of grants and go hard at them. 

• Here’s some tactical strategies you can take right now: Gantt chart your activities for the next 2-3 years. Activities: capital works or major equipment upgrades/purchases, key staff hires, research and development milestones, general business milestones (commercialisation, marketing, export).  

• Get a list of all grants you’re eligible for. 

• Work out when the money would come in for each grant and if it aligns with your activities. 

• Assess your probabilities of success.  

• Rank your top three and nail those applications.  

• Stay focused and beware the time sinks. 

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2. List your eligible grants

Grant information is easy to find – it’s filtering for eligibility and success probability assessment that takes time. Start your list by going to great, free existing sources of grants online:  

Airtree list: Well-known innovation grants, and therefore more competitive, but not an exhaustive list. 

• Grant Connect: Comprehensive list, but not tailored, so takes time to filter 

• growag.com also invites all Research and Development Corporations to list their funding opportunities on the growag.com portal which also includes additional opportunities like accelerators 

• All the state governments also list their grants. Google is your friend. 

• Paid subscription services

3. Look before you leap

Startups often come to me saying ‘we’re perfect for this grant, will you write it’.  

It’s tempting to jump but it pays to slow down, forensically read the guidelines and compare them to other grants. This upfront time could save you months of wasted time and hope. Recently we found an interesting side note not listed in the eligibility section: ‘If you’re eligible for Grant X then you can’t apply for this grant’.  They were eligible for Grant X so we just saved them a month’s work in the wrong direction. Some guidelines are 50 pages long and often there are between 30-100 grants you might be eligible for 100 x 50 pages = 5,000 pages of content to read to assess eligibility.

Too many people burn themselves, their staff and their partners out by being reactionary to grants sent by well-meaning board member’s, staff and miss the ones they’ve got a great shot at.  

So, start with a ‘grant scan’; a prioritised list of all eligible grants tailored to the company’s strategy with a ranking based on a probability of success. Done properly, they’re a month’s worth of work but set you up for years and are worth it if you get millions in non-dilutive funding. Being very selective about which grants you go for means you have the time and energy to nail the applications you’re most likely to win.  

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The grant scan keeps you focused and convinces stakeholders you have a smart strategy. When people invariably send you grants you can check quickly if you’ve already reviewed that grant. If you haven’t, you can add it to the list and do a quick review. It’s an easy way to triage opportunities and keep the team focused on opportunities you can win. 

It’s important to note many large grants require matched funding. For example, 50% of the budget needs to come from you and your partners and the remaining 50% comes from government. Keep this in mind during your eligibility check because if you can’t match the funding then that will quickly disqualify a grant. 

You can do the grant scan on your own but it’s often worth investing in a specialist to do it for you. They have a comparative advantage and can filter and assess much faster. This way you get the best quality assessment to set you up for success and you don’t lose your team down government guideline rabbit holes. A pro can set you up with a strategy that your team can maintain, and gradually build the expertise inhouse. 

Grant specialists also know when fantastic last-minute grants open and close quickly.

Talking with one grant giver this year, they said they’ve issued more grants and funding in the last few months than in the whole of the last five years.

These grants had very short opening windows so by the time most people heard about it the opportunity had closed. 

 4. What’s your success probability?

Approach reading grants opportunities like they’re a job interview. The grant guidelines describe the ideal job candidate – but what is your ideal opportunity?  If it’s not a fit, it’s a distraction. Be clear about your activities and budget needs for the next six to 36 months and find grants that fit you.  

Timing

Forty days is the fastest decision I’ve seen. Typically, though for decent sized grants in the millions expect six to nine months from submissions, assessment, awarding and contracting. It can be longer, but they usually give you a fair indication or commit to a timeline in the guidelines. Make sure that the activities you want paid for roughly match the timing of the money.  

Treat government timelines like your friend who’s always late. If you know they’re typically late to coffee, don’t make your day dependent on them being on time.

Open your laptop and keep your program of work going, then it’s a welcome surprise when they drop the coffee down in front of you. 

Cash flow timing  

Cashflow timing is critical in this market. Not all grants are created equal. The best provide cash up front, and the worst provide cash in arrears with long delays. Iit pays to work with a grant specialist who’s familiar with this as it’s not commonly published in the grant guidelines. 

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Questions to ask yourself to start to assess whether a grant is worth your time:  

• Read the criteria. Do you shout ‘this is us! I could nail that response!’?  

• Do the activities you want money for, directly align with what they want to pay for? 

• When they say ‘we encourage’ co-investment or partnerships’ – can you do it?  

• Have you sewn up the industry partners to give you that competitive edge? For example, all the best partners are aligned under your grant and not someone else’s.  

• Do you align with the referenced government strategy documents? (Are you regionally based, female-founded etc.) 

• Are your competitors excluded for some reason? They may not be eligible or too busy to apply.  

• Is the opening window of the grant shot? Last minute grants can sometimes give you a competitive edge. If you’ve done your grant scan and forecast what opportunities are coming you can line your ducks up early so if there’s a short grant opening window of three3 weeks you’re organised and will have a great application when other applicants may be rushed.

5. Write with purpose

Work out your core sales pitch and repeat, repeat, repeat.

Grant reviewers are reading hundreds of applications across industries. They may not know your business model or technology well so make sure a layman can understand it. Spell out your compelling economic argument and hammer it home.  

Government KPI’s are different to business KPI’s – you need to make the economic development arguments.  If you were awarded this grant, how would it grow your business? How many more people would that enable you to employ? Are they regional jobs? How does it benefit the whole supply chain and wider industry? How does it help the industry to employ more people and create more economic benefit? What new skills would it bring to the industry? How would that give the state or the Commonwealth a competitive advantage nationally or internationally when trying to attract economic investment and talent to their region? 

Now that you’ve explained the opportunity, detail what will happen if you don’t get the grant. What do they stand to lose – jobs, economic value, a new industry etc. 

6. Do’s and don’ts for avoiding time sinks

• DON’T write a grant application before you’ve forensically read the guidelines to find out if you’re eligible. Upfront work will save you months of failed applications, disillusionment and burnout. 

• DON’T write a grant application before you’ve done a grant scan. 

• DO stay focused on your target grants and line your ducks up for those. 

• DO write to the criteria. Treat it like a university assignment, write to hit the points. It will look and feel different to how you usually pitch. Once you’ve established the grant is a good fit, reframe the pitch to meet the assessment criteria points. 

• DON’T confuse size with less work. Generally, grants between $100,000 – $3M require the same amount of effort.  Over $3M and it is generally a different standard. 

• DO get a grant specialist to put together a grant scan (grant strategy). They’ll be much faster. 

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7. Grant resources

Common grant themes and activities you’ll come across in your grant quest: 

• Innovation/commercialisation: $200K-$4M, eligible activities can include equipment, R&D activities, staff, and international expansion costs.  

• Female: $100K- $1M, cuts out the 80% of founders that are male in this country. Your probability = high. 

• Infrastructure: Hundreds of millions if building infrastructure in Australia that allows you to service a global market. 

• Jobs: Grants and rebates on payroll tax etc. for each employee 

Research: 

• Can be a decent scale ($1-5m), ideal for longer time horizons but you generally need an established university partnership. 

Other schemes include:  

• R&D tax incentive.  

• Federal Export Market Development Grants which refund you up to $700K over seven years  

• Federal Government’s Landing Pads 

SCALE IMPACT was founded by Camilla Roberts (GAICD MBA) who had a vision to be the non-dilutive funding partner to world’s leading climate technology companies. She’s worked in a research institution, in the executive team for a grant organisation and as a Chief of Strategy in a high growth scale-up. Camilla knows where the soft and hard negotiation lines are to get a good deal secured quickly. Need a little (or a lot) of help with your grants? Reach out to Camilla at [email protected]