The NSW government is giving small businesses in NSW a grant of $2000 if they employ new full-time, part-time and casual workers in NSW.

To be eligible, the business needs to:

• Have an active Australian Business Number (ABN)
• Be exempt from the payroll tax for a financial year

In addition, the employment of the person must:

• Fill a new job.
• Have started after 1 July 2015 and before 1 July 2019.
• Be maintained for 12 months.
• Mean that the number of your NSW FTE employees prior to hiring them increases and the number is maintained over a 12-month period.
• Mean the role is performed wholly or mainly in NSW.

The claim needs to be lodged within 60 days after the 12-month anniversary date.

Businesses can apply online at http://www.revenue.nsw.gov.au/grants/sbg/online

For further information, please visit http://www.revenue.nsw.gov.au/grants/sbg

The NSW Government has launched a NSW-Israel joint Research & Development (R&D) program, where businesses based in NSW, partnering with an Israeli business will have access to grants of up to $250,000 to cover R&D expenses. The grant is intended to provide 50% of a project’s costs, where the other 50% will need to be covered by the NSW applicant or a third party.

Eligibility criteria

Applicants need to meet the following eligibility criteria:

• There must be at least one NSW-based commercial organisation
• There must be at least one Israel-based commercial organisation
• They both need to be separate legal entities
• They must collaborate to conduct R&D on an innovative technological product for commercialisation on a global scale.

Further eligibility criteria are available at www.industry.nsw.gov.au/israelresearchproject

There is help available to NSW-businesses to find a suitable Israeli partner from the NSW Department of Industry’s online portal.

Priority areas

Although all NSW-businesses who partner with an Israeli entity are eligible to apply, there are several industry fields that the government will give priority to and contribute an additional 10% of NSW total R&D project costs (up to AUD 250,000 per project):

• Projects based in regional and rural areas of NSW – i.e. outside metropolitan Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle.
• Startups or high growth businesses
• Projects targeting cybersecurity, water management, agri-technology, tourism technology and international education technology.

Points will be given to each criterion within the assessment process including the:

• Technological aspect
• Business/economic aspect
• Company’s capabilities
• Quality of cooperation
• Completion and clarity of application
• Priority sectors (for NSW applicants only)

For Israeli partners, points against the assessment criteria will be set out on the Israel Innovation Authority’s website.

The assessment process has two stages. In stage one, bilateral application forms will be assessed by NSW and Israel. Applications meeting the eligibility criteria will move on to stage two when individual application forms are assessed. Further details can be found in the fact sheet.

Key dates:

Stage 1 applications close 18 December 2017, with eligibility assessment completed by 4 February 2018. Stage 2 applications open 17 February 2018.