More Advance Queensland funding available for start-ups

Round four of the Advance Queensland Ignite Ideas Fund has now opened for applications.

Start-ups and small businesses in Queensland can apply for up to $250,000 funding to advance their innovative products and services.

The fund has supported more than 200 Queensland businesses so far, through $26.5 million in funding and the creation more than 1000 new jobs.

“Through three rounds of funding, the Ignite Ideas program has supported hundreds of Queensland companies,” said Innovation Minister Kate Jones.

“Ignite Ideas funding has supported applicants from diverse range of sectors, including tourism, agriculture, advanced manufacturing, engineering, renewable energy, information technology, virtual reality, safety and construction.

“Through this Advance Queensland program, the Queensland Government is providing innovative businesses with opportunities to take their ready-to-market idea to the next level.”

Airway Medical Innovations Director Dr Julio Alonso, a Brisbane doctor turned start-up entrepreneur and innovator, received $250,000 through round three of the Ignite Ideas fund to help him commercialise and globalise an invention that will make it safer, easier and faster for doctors to perform endotracheal intubation.

“The funding has been a tremendous boost and has allowed me to continue towards the commercialisation of the device,” Dr Alonso said.

“The Ignite Ideas funding has helped with the costs of obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals for the technology and with my first clinical user program.”

North Burnett-based Eidsvold Siltstone received more than $55,000 from the Advance Queensland Ignite Ideas Fund to work with QUT researchers in determining how the fine talc-like powder produced from sawing sandstone into blocks could be turned into metakaolin, a cement strengthener commonly used in Europe and the US.

Eidsvold Siltstone Managing Director Michael Whitty said the Ignite Ideas funding helped him identify the optimal minute particle size the dust needed to be reduced to and the temperature needed in the kiln to produce the most reactive metakaolin.

“My immediate task is to develop this metakaolin to a point that satisfies our potential export market,” Whitty said.

“We can lead the way in Australia and try and keep up with a growing international trend in the geopolymer cement market.”

The Advance Queensland Ignite Ideas program targets businesses with fewer than 200 staff that have a suitable working prototype that is ready to be turned into commercial reality.

More information on the program is available on the Advance Queensland website: https://advance.qld.gov.au/entrepreneurs-startups/ignite-ideas-fund.aspx.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/nd3000

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