Maximising Returns on Opportunity: What does the National Innovation and Science Agenda offer you?

Crowd-Sourced Equity Funding (CSEF)

• Entrepreneurs can raise funds online (≤ $5 million pa) in return for equity in company
• Available to unlisted Australian public companies with turnover and gross assets ≤ $5 million

Venture Capital Limited Partnerships

• New tax arrangements for Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnerships designed to attract new investment into high potential start-ups (see detail under Investors)

CSIRO Innovation Fund

• See detail below under Researchers

Insolvency Reform

• Improving insolvency laws by reducing default bankruptcy period from three years to one year
• Introducing a ‘safe harbour’ for directors from personal liability to insolvent trading if a restructuring advisor is appointed to develop a turnaround plan for the company
• Making ‘ipso facto’ clauses that allow contracts to be terminated solely due to an insolvency event unenforceable if a company is undertaking a restructure

Proposal paper introduced in 1st half of 2016; legislation in mid-2017

Intangible Asset Depreciation

• Same tax treatment of intangible assets as for other types of assets
• Faster depreciation will make start- ups intellectual property as well as other intangible assets a more attractive investment option

New arrangements to apply 1 July 2016

Employee Share Schemes (ESS)

• Amendments to disclosure requirements to make ESS more user-friendly
• Reforms will make encourage small companies and stat-ups to introduce ESS

Legislation to be introduced in 1st half of 2016

Tax Incentive for Early Stage Investors

• Concessional tax treatment for high-growth start-ups that undertake an eligible business (to be determined following consultation)
• To qualify companies must have been incorporated during the last three income years, are not listed on any stock exchange and have expenditure and income ≤ $1 million and $200 000 in the previous income year respectively

New arrangements apply from date of Royal Assent (expected to be 1 July 2016)

Australian Innovation Network

• Establishment of an online portal to access information on start-up support opportunities, activities and events across Australia

1 July 2016 – New component to the Entrepreneurs’ Programme

Global Innovation Strategy

• $11 million to establish five ‘landing pads ‘ in Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv and 3 other locations to support entrepreneurial Australians

Implementation to commence in 2016 with funding available 1 July 2016

Revised Visa Arrangements

• Visa system to be revised to attract best and brightest entrepreneurial talent to Australia
• New Entrepreneur Visa established for innovative entrepreneurs with financial backing from3rd party
• Developed based on consultation
• Overseas network leveraged to promote Australia as a world class destination to start an innovative business and to seek out talented individuals to come to Australia

Entrepreneur Visa introduced in November 2016

Incubator Support Programme

• Competitive matched funding to support new incubators and accelerators
• Competitive matched funding to boost effectiveness, expand services and engage a Commercialisation Adviser to access government services and programmes
• Competitive matched funding to access quality research and technical talent for 3-12 month secondments of national/international expert advisers

1 July 2016 – New component to the Entrepreneurs’ Programme

Increasing Access to Company Losses

• New tax rules will allow offset losses against other profits when new business activities are undertaken (see detail under Established Businesses)

Legislation to be introduced in 1st half of 2016

Innovations Connections

• Provide facilitators  to access innovation infrastructure
• Matched grants for business researchers placement in publicly funded research organisations
• Access to R&D and testing facilities in VET sector
• Specialised training options with VET sector

1 January 2016

Intangible Asset Depreciation

• New options to provide businesses to self-assess the tax effective life of acquired intangible assets that are currently fixed by statute
• Same tax treatment of intangible assets as for other types of assets

New arrangements to apply 1 July 2016

Increasing Access to Company Losses

• Reform to inflexible rules that prevent companies from claiming losses  when seeking new business opportunities
• ‘same business test’ will be relaxed to allow businesses to access past year losses when involved in new business activities

Legislation to be introduced in 1st half of 2016

ARC Linkage Projects

• Open to continuous applications to encourage more opportunities for collaboration and partnerships between universities and business
• Decisions on applications will be fast tracked

1 July 2016

Women in STEM

• Establish new initiative under ‘Male Champions of Change’ project to focus on STEM-based entrepreneurial activities
• Partnering with the private sector on initiatives to celebrate female STEM role models and foster interest in STEM among girls and women

Implementation to commence 2016-17

Revised Visa Arrangements

• Overseas network leveraged to promote Australia as a world class destination to start an innovative business and to seek out talented individuals to come to Australia

Crowd-Sourced Equity Funding (CSEF)

• Can contribute up to $10 000 per company, per year to unlisted Australian public companies with turnover and gross assets ≤ $5 million
• No limit on total contribution across multiple companies
• Public companies created to access CSEF receive up to a five year exemption on obligations for holding an AGM, annual audited financial statements and annual report to shareholders.

CSEF legislation introduced into Parliament on 3 December 2015; commencement within 6 months of Royal Assent.

Biomedical Translation Fund

• Creation of an independent body to invest in biomedical discoveries and assist in commercialisation
• Will draw on fund managers for matching finding from private sector investment
• Will assist Australian businesses to cross the ‘valley of death’

Biomedical Translation Fund established in 2016

Venture Capital Limited Partnerships

• New tax arrangements for Early Stage Venture Capital Limited partnerships (ESVCLPs) will receive a 10% non- refundable tax offset on capital invested during the year
• Maximum fund  for ESVCLPs increased form $100 million to $200 million
• ESVCLPs no longer divest from company when its value is ≥ $250 million
• Eligibility and investment requirements for ESVCLPs  and Venture Capital Limited Partnerships will allow managers broader investment activities and enable participation from a greater diversity of investors

New arrangements apply from date of Royal Assent (expected to be 1 July 2016)

Intangible Asset Depreciation

• Same tax treatment of intangible assets as for other types of assets
• Faster depreciation will make start- ups intellectual property as well as other intangible assets a more attractive investment option

New arrangements to apply 1 July 2016

Tax Incentive for Early Stage Investors

• Concessional tax treatment for investment in innovative high-growth start-ups
• 20% non-refundable tax offset on investments (≤ $200 000 per investor pa)
• 10 year exemption on capital gains tax, provided investments are held for three years

New arrangements apply from date of Royal Assent (expected to be 1 July 2016)

CSIRO Innovation Fund

• Creation of an early stage innovation fund to support co-investment in new spin-off and start-up companies, products and services created by Australian research institutions
• Expansion of CSIRO’s accelerator programme to include other publicly  funded research organisations to commercialise research
• The Fund will work with the new Industry Growth Centres to identify and align opportunities for collaboration

Early stage fund  implemented in 2016.

Expansion of existing accelerator programme to commence 2016-17

Biomedical Translation Fund

• Creation of an independent body to invest in biomedical discoveries and assist in commercialisation
• Will draw on fund managers for matching finding from private sector investment
• Will assist Australian businesses to cross the ‘valley of death’

Biomedical Translation Fund established in 2016

Incubator Support Programme

• Competitive matched funding to access quality research and technical talent for 3-12 month secondments of national/international expert advisers (see detail under Incubators)
• Will focus on regional areas and sectors with high innovation potential such as those identified as an industry Growth Centre or a Science and research Priority

1 July 2016 – New component to the Entrepreneurs’ Programme

Cyber Security Growth Centre

• Funding for an industry-led Centre to create business opportunities for Australia’s cyber security industry
• Will bring together industry, researchers and governments to create a national cyber security innovation network

Growth Centre will be operational by mid-2016

Quantum Computing Technology

• Investment of $26 million over five years to support quantum computing technology in Australia
• The Centre for Quantum Computation and Communications Technology  (UNSW) will be suppported to
• develop a silicon quantum integrated circuit

Funding to commence in 2016-17

National Research Infrastructure

• Investment of $2.3 billion over 10 years towards the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy ($1.5 billion), Australian Synchrotron ($520 million), Square Kilometre Array ($294 million)
• Funding provides certainty for research infrastructure

Synchrotron and SKA  funding commence 2016-17

NCRIS funding commences 2017-18

Global Innovation Strategy

• $36 million invested over 5 years to improve Australia’s international innovation and science collaboration 
• $22 million seed funding to assist Australian collaboration’s with international research-industry clusters
• $3 million to support regional collaboration that promotes an open-market approach to industry research, including regional workshops, multilateral projects and mobility support for businesses and researchers
• Seed funding will be provided for collaborative science workshops with regional economies on shared challenges such as food and bio-security

Implementation to commence in 2016 with funding available 1 July 2016

Innovations Connections

• Expand and relaunch existing  with Research Connections matched grants for graduate and p/g placements in business

1 January 2016

ARC Linkage Projects

• Open to continuous applications to encourage more opportunities for collaboration and partnerships between universities and business
• Decisions on applications will be made within six months from lodgement
• Benefit of research included in consideration for funding

1 July 2016

Measuring Impact and Engagement in University Research

• Introduction of measures of non-academic impact and industry and end-user engagement  in a national assessment of university research performance
• Assessment will report on impact and engagement at a university level by discipline
• Measures to be determined through extensive consultation building on work already conducted by Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
• Assessment will be conducted by the Australian research Council, as a companion exercise to Excellence in Research for Australia

Development of quantitative and qualitative measures in 2016

Pilot assessment in 2017

Report in 2018

Greater Collaboration through University Research Block Grants

• New research block funding arrangements to universities that give equal emphasis to success in industry and other end-user engagement and to research quality
• An additional $127 million to research block grants over the forward estimates
• Research Support Programme (RSP) to provide $885 million in 2017 as a fle4xible funding stream
• Research Training Programme (RTP)  to provide $948 million in 2017 to support training of researchers and innovators
• RSP and RTP to replace previous schemes of six research block grants
• Government will consult with universities on new guidelines in 2016

New arrangements commence 1 January 2017

Inspiring a Nation of Scientists

• Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science to recognise excellence in STEM in early career research
• Developing mathematics resources for early childhood educators to engage preschool children in STEM

Implementation to commence 2016-17

Women in STEM

• Expand the Science in Australia Gender Equity pilot to cover more Australian Science and research institutions

Revised Visa Arrangements

• Pathways to permanent residency for STEM and ICT  postgraduate researchers will be enhanced
• Australian STEM and specified ICT (or related fields) doctorate level and masters by research qualifications awarded extra points under skilled migration programme to strengthen pathway to permanent residency  
• Overseas network leveraged to promote Australia as a world class destination to start an innovative business and to seek out talented individuals to come to Australia

Implementation in December 2016

Digital Technologies

• Support for school leaders to drive literacy and partnerships to bring scientists and ICT professionals into classrooms
• $51 million over five years will be spent to improve the skill base in the digital age
• Online computer challenges available nationally for Year 5 and Year 7 students
• ICT summer schools for targeted groups of Year 9 and 10 students
• Annual Cracking the Code national competition for Year 4 through to Year 12 in National Literacy and Numeracy week
• Support for teachers to implement the Digital Technologies curriculum

Commence 1 July 2016 as part of the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies

Inspiring a Nation of Scientists

• Supporting and expanding community engagement including citizen science projects
• $48 million over five years to inspire Australians to engage with STEM in society
• Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science to recognise excellence in STEM in young Australians
• Supporting Australian students in competitions eg International Science and Mathematics Olympiad
• Hosting the 2019 Asian Physics Olympiad

Implementation to commence 2016-17

Women in STEM

• Investment of $13 million over five years to encourage more women to embark on and remain in STEM related careers