Ready to grow your R&D idea? Free CSIRO course will support small businesses

Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) working in manufacturing and looking to innovate are being invited to explore new research and development opportunities that will help build Australia’s manufacturing capability.

Innovate to Grow, a free 10-week program run by CSIRO’s Lindfield Collaboration Hub with support from the NSW Government, will help 25 businesses develop a specific R&D idea they’ve been working on and turn it into a viable R&D project.

Deputy Director of CSIRO’s SME Connect team, Dr George Feast, said R&D was essential for SME’s to better understand what opportunities are in front of them:

“Even though we know R&D drives innovation, it can be an expensive undertaking for businesses, risky and time consuming for those without the right guidance and support,” Dr Feast said.

“Through this program, participants will be given help to refine a new idea they want to explore and better understand their idea’s business and scientific viability.

“They will also be exposed to industry knowledge, hear from innovation and industry experts, and work with an R&D mentor.”

“Even though collaboration is key in driving good R&D outcomes, research we released last year found that less than 15 per cent of Australian businesses engage universities or research institutions when they are thinking of exploring new innovation opportunities – our goal through this program is to up that percentage,” he said.

Former Innovate to Grow participant Hamish Shaw would recommend the program to any manufacturing SME looking to grow their business:

“The perfect solution in the current times... nobody knows their product/markets and how to improve them like SMEs, they just don’t have the resources to develop them. This course taps that knowledge rich base and links with the resources.”

The program will be delivered to SMEs across Australia by the team at CSIRO’s Lindfield Collaboration Hub, just across the Lane Cove River from Macquarie Park. The award-winning incubator is an affiliate Connect MPID member.

Applications are open until Monday 22 August, with the program kicking off on 6 September 2022.