Local capability fund: Peel Regional Round applications

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) 
• Employ less than 200 people. 

Additional eligibility criteria may apply. Refer to the Peel Regional Round Guidelines.

Previous recipients of funding through the Industry Facilitation and Support Program (IFSP) or the LCF are eligible to apply, subject to:

• The business having complied with the requirements of the Financial Assistance Agreements entered into for the prior funding - including all reporting requirements
• The business having received no more than $200,000 in grant funding under the LCF program in the last five years, including the most recent application. Any funding received as part of the $10 million COVID-19 LCF Rounds run in 2020-21 does not go towards this limit.

Eligible applicants must submit their application online via the SmartyGrants portal. 

A preview of the application form detailing the information required is available through the portal. Before applying, applicants must read and understand the guidelines and the Financial Assistance Agreement found on the portal.

Applications will be assessed by an independent Evaluation Panel which will meet to consider all submitted applications following the closure of the round. 

Applications will be assessed against their eligibility as well as the round objectives, and will then be scored against the following evaluation criteria and weightings:

• Relevance/need 30% 
• Level of impact 30% 
• Capability and Capacity 10%
• Value for money 15%
• Financial viability and risk 15%

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. If you have queries about whether the business (or an activity) is eligible, feel free to contact the relevant team as detailed on page 3 of the guidelines.