Victoria Boosting Highly Innovative SMEs

27 Aug 08

Innovation: Victoria's Future provides $40 million for the Boosting Highly Innovative SMEs (BHIS) program, a major new initiative in the Victorian Government's fresh approach to innovation policy and programs.

The Boosting Highly Innovative SMEs (BHIS) program is part of a $300 million innovation package announced recently, which also includes $145 million to establish the new Victorian Science Agenda Investment fund for competitive innovation, science and technology grants.

"Victoria really is the innovation capital of Australia," Victorian Premier John Brumby told reporters. "If you look at what we're doing in terms of medical research, if you look at research and development, the Synchrotron, Bio21, the National Stem Cell Centre, innovation is very much the heart of our new economy, and it's a major driver of jobs into the future."

BHIS encourages adoption and commercial exploitation of new ideas and new technology and is inspired by the US's very successful Small Business Innovation Research program.

The BHIS iniative is specifically aimed at small and medium technology companies and is designed to give them the tools and resources to commercialise their ideas by providing them assistance in the areas of assembling management capability, developing marketing skills, accessing finance and cultivating networks.

There are two parts to the initiative.

The $12 million Technology Commercialisation Program will provide resources to support fast growth technology SMEs by "reducing the time and resources needed to bring technology to global markets".

The $28 million Market Validation Program is designed to support technology companies who develop products to meet specific Victorian Government technology needs. It will involve the creation of the Small Business Innovation Research Fund to fund feasibility studies and research and development for companies that join the program.

This will target Government challenges in areas such as service delivery that require new solutions, especially where there is likely to be flow-on demand locally or internationally.

BHIS will embed a new procurement culture across Victorian Government agencies to stimulate and support local companies developing these innovative  solutions. This will reduce SME uncertainty in R&D and price the risk of developing innovations and grow skills and high-value jobs. And beyond encouraging innovation in the market, it will also deliver more efficient and responsive Government services for all Victorians.

As part of the National Innovation Agenda, Victoria will propose rolling out the BHIS model nationwide to grow high-tech SMEs across Australia.