Gold Coast businesses share in innovation funding

Two Gold Coast businesses have been awarded Advance Queensland funding to enable them to partner with university graduates to work on an innovative project to help grow their companies.

Surfers Paradise based network management business Opmantek and Main Beach based Get Wet Surf School were among 10 Queensland businesses who were collectively provided with $430,000 of funding from the second round of grants under the Advance Queensland Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Program.

Innovation Minister Leeanne Enoch said the KTP program was part of a suite of programs to foster innovation and collaboration that offered grants of up to $50,000 for small businesses to collaborate with university graduates to work on innovative projects to grow their business.

“The Advance Queensland Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Program creates knowledge-based jobs while supporting and encouraging innovation and productivity improvements within small businesses,” Ms Enoch said.

“It encourages collaboration between universities and small business, which we know is essential to transforming our economy and creating jobs now and for the future.

“The successful submissions are as diverse as they are inventive and include dynamic new tourism ideas, developing software and hardware for the growing aerospace industry, and new visualisation tools to prevent sports injuries.”

Opmantek was awarded $49,333 to employ a Griffith University graduate to create an automatic payment and licence generation system for customers.

Opmantek’s Export Manager Sharon Hunneybell said the grant would help the company to provide a new service for global markets.

“The graduate will be involved in the creation of a technology that will see automation of license management benefiting over 100,000 organisations around the world that use our software,” Ms Hunneybell said.   

Get Wet Surf School was awarded $20,600 to employ a Griffith University graduate to capitalise on the growing international market for world class surf and beach experiences in Queensland.

Get Wet Surf School Director Kerri Jekyll said the company would use the grant to develop experiences which are specifically targeted at Asian travellers.

“We will partner with a Masters graduate with specialist skills in marketing and product design who can help us embrace this growing market, expand our range of tourism experiences and take the business to the next level,” Ms Jekyll said.

The latest funding round brings the total Advance Queensland Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Program funding to almost $1.7 million across 31 diverse small businesses and seven universities.

Advance Queensland is the Queensland Government’s $405 million whole-of-government initiative being delivered to create an environment that welcomes and supports innovation and entrepreneurship and encourages greater investment in Queensland. 

Further Information on the Advance Queensland Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Program is available at www.advance.qld.gov.au/small-business/knowledge-transfer-partnerships.

Media contact: Daniel Lato 0438 830 201