Government and Institutional Grants

Obtaining Funds For Your Latest Project, Startup or Invention

When we sit down with inventors and new clients, one of the recurring topics of discussion is funding. Have you acquired funding for your project? If not, how do you plan to obtain it?

There are several ways to obtain funding for the commercialisation of a product; crowd funding, investors and licensees, and government and institutional grants.

In Part 2 of our Funding Your Project series, we will cover Government and Institutional Grants.

Need to catch up? Part 1: Crowd-sourced Equity Funding

What are Government and Institutional Grants?

Government Grants are a financial award given to an eligible person from the federal, state or local government. Institutional Grants are similar but are awarded to eligible persons from universities or organisations, not by the government. These grants can be used for many things but mainly to help fund ideas and projects.

To apply for these grants, you need to go through and check the respective grants eligible criteria. This eligible criterion can range for different grants, so it is important to check this before applying.

Quick Tips:

• When applying for grants, it is important to highlight your proposed impact on community, industry or development, as this is often a key focus point.
• Most grant programs require a performance report or results to show the use of the grant money.

The benefits of grants

A key benefit is that unlike a loan, you don’t need to pay the money back.  Funding is widely available across many categories and can be used to start-up or grow your business and generate more revenue.  Furthermore, there is no limit to the amount of grants a business can apply for.

Searching for a grant

Knowing where to begin searching for grants can be difficult. Most government and institute websites will provide information on grants they currently have available.

We have created a list of Government Grant Programs and directories in order to help you find grants that your business or project are eligible for. There you will find grant information for Small Business, Renewable Energy, Infrastructure, R&D Tax Deductions and more.

An integral part to successfully obtaining these grants is knowing when funding is set to be allocated and promptly preparing your application for submission.

Protect your IP before going public

It is important to ensure that prior to making any public offerings or any public disclosure, that your intellectual property (IP) is protected.

For products, this includes at least filing a provisional patent application and/or an application for a design registration.  Wynnes can help you identify and protect your IP assets, as well as provide options and recommendations.