Defence West: Defence Ready Initiative 2023/24

To be eligible for funding, applicants must:

• Be registered for GST for at least 12 months prior to application submission date;
• Have an Australian Business Number (ABN);
• Be a for-profit organisation or business (Not-for-profits and charities are ineligible);
• Have its principal place of business (operating facility) in Western Australia and continue to be based in Western Australia for at least the next 12 months following application submission date;
• Employ less than 200 people; and
• Have been operating for at least 2 years, including at least one year in Western Australia, at the time of submitting an application for funding.

Eligible applicants must submit their application online via the online Defence Ready Initiative 2023/24 application form.

Before applying, applicants must read and understand these guidelines 

Applications will be assessed by an independent evaluation panel following the round closing. Applications will be assessed against their eligibility as well as the objectives for that round, and will then be scored against the following evaluation criteria:

• Relevance/need
• Level of impact
• Level of market/industry engagement
• Value for money
• Financial viability and risk

1. Always double-check your application. It is worth getting someone else to read over it, if possible, before you submit it to ensure it makes sense.
2. Remember that assessors are unlikely to be experts in the business’s industry. Overly technical and detailed answers may be difficult for assessors to understand which could lead to lower scores. When writing an application it is useful to write it in a way that anyone could understand, not just those who work in the business’s industry. A good way of doing this is to imagine you are promoting the business via its website or social media where the public will need to understand the core activities of the business.
3. Give yourself enough time before the closing date to be able to source quotes and relevant documents. As these documents can often take a bit of time to get hold of - with quotes sometimes taking a number of weeks - if you start an application the day before the closing date, and do not have the necessary documents ready to go, then you might run out of time to get them. Applications without quotes or relevant documents will receive lower scores.
4. Good applications provide sufficient detail but are also concise. While you definitely want to provide enough detail to ensure assessors are able to properly assess your application, if you overwhelm them with large amounts of detail it may be difficult for them to determine the point you are trying to make. Again, it is worth double checking your application and getting someone else to look over it to make sure that it is detailed, but to the point.
5. Assessors are only able to make a recommendation based on the information you provide in your application. If there is something important that will help your application stand out then include it.
6. Always read the eligibility criteria and the eligible activities carefully to ensure the business is eligible to apply, and that the activities the business is seeking funding for are eligible. A good application takes time to write, so if the business is ineligible you don’t want to spend time on an application that will be rejected straight away.