
Business Research and Innovation Initiative is a program from the federal government that aims to drive innovation among small and medium level businesses through government support. The scheme cites challenges the government faces in implementing policies and in the areas of service delivery. Small and medium sized businesses have to solve these challenges by showing innovative approaches.
Business Research and Innovation Initiative (BRII) is inspired from and based upon many similar programs run by states and territories and even the one called Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) being run successfully in the U.S for the last 40 years.
Eligibility criteria:
- To be able to participate in BRII, you need to have an ABN.
- The incorporation of your business must have taken place inside Australia
- The annual turnover of your business must be less than $20 million for each of the three previous years
- Application should be sent through the online portal of BRII

Several stages of BRII
Business Research and Innovation Initiative works in three stages. The first stage spells out challenges faced by the federal government in policy implementation and service deliveries. At the second stage, proposals from eligible businesses are invited by the government to show innovative approaches in addressing these challenges. If a startup or business is considered a winner by the government, it is given a grant of up to $100,000 to work upon the development of its idea over the period of 3-6 months.
In the third and final stage of BRII, the eligible businesses get a chance to apply for a further grant of up to $1 million. The winners can use the money for the development of a prototype solution.
The usefulness of the BRII scheme
According to the government of Australia, there are many short and long term benefits of the scheme called BRII. This monetary encouragement by the government forces many businesses to come up with innovative approaches for the solutions of problems faced by the government. These businesses can retain their ideas and develop innovations. They can even commercialize these ideas for sale in Australia and overseas territories.
The challenges thrown by the BRII are of such a nature that innovative approaches suggested by small and medium sized businesses help in meeting many social and environmental goals. There are two stages of funding under BRII with $100,000 in the initial stage and if the innovative approach is successful, a second round grant of up to $1 million per start-up. In total, a collective amount of $19 million has been set aside by the government of Australia for finding solutions to the problems faced by the nation as a whole.
Business Research and Innovation Initiative (BRII) is currently open (it closes on 3 June 2021). Under this program, you can get an initial grant of $50,000 to $100,000. If your feasibility study is successful, you can get up to $1 million for the development of a solution and also work for its commercialisation. For more information on this program, please speak to one of our advisors at the number mentioned below.