About
The Innovation Booster Grant (IBG) is a competitive Western Australian Government grant, funded through the $40 million New Industries and Innovation Fund (2025-29).
The IBG is administered by the Department of Energy and Economic Diversification (DEED) and targets early-stage founders, innovation-driven small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), and startups in Western Australia to improve capability and commercialise innovative projects.
Startups and innovative SMEs face barriers to successfully execute their ideas due to a lack of resources. They lack the necessary capital to access the support services and expertise required to refine, test, protect, validate, and certify their innovation.
The objective of the IBG is to enable startups and innovative SMEs to progress their innovations through access to support services and expertise that improve the capability of the business to validate or commercialise a product.
The NIIF is the primary tool for the State to deliver against Western Australia's Innovation Strategy, and is a key enabler of the State’s economic development framework Diversify WA.
Application information
Changes to the IBG
Show moreIn 2025, a number of new elements have been incorporated to enhance the IBG program:
The maximum grant amount has increased from $40,000 to $50,000 to maximise the impact on Western Australia’s innovation sector.
Matched funding requirements for targeted cohorts have been reduced from 20% to 15% to encourage applications from:
- businesses headquartered in regional WA
- First Nations founded businesses, and
- female founded businesses
Funding must be spent on expenses related to the procurement of support services or expertise from an external provider.
Applications that align with at least one of the priority sectors in the State’s economic diversification framework Diversify WA will be preferenced.
Please see the Innovation Booster Grant Guidelines and FAQ for more details.
Purpose of the Grant
Show moreThe IBG is designed to assist businesses to:
- develop or enhance products or services that are commercially ready, or to reach a commercial ready stage;
- test, validate, or certify their Minimum Viable Product (MVP);
- procure specialist consultancy services to assist with Intellectual Property, marketing or commercialisation support; and/or
- address a specific technical problem that the business cannot solve themselves, or for which the solution is not readily available.
Intended outcomes of the program are that:
- businesses have greater access to capital to engage support services and experts
- businesses access support services, enabling them to address a technical problem, progressing their innovation towards commercialisation
- businesses develop new to market products that are commercially ready
- the number of commercially ready innovations in WA increases, and
- Western Australia is a location of choice for product testing and development.
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