Every programme in detail
Read the exclusions before the eligibility. It is faster to find out you are ruled out than to find out you qualify.
CSIRO Kick-Start
RollingCSIRO, Australia’s national science agency · Federal
Dollar-matched funding of $20,000 to $60,000, paired with access to CSIRO research expertise and facilities.
What you put in
Dollar for dollar.
Who qualifies
- Australian start-ups and small to medium enterprises
- A scientific or technical research and development challenge CSIRO can work on
- Able to match the funding dollar for dollar
Who does not qualify
- Businesses with no scientific or technical research and development component
- Businesses outside Australia
- Anyone unable to meet the dollar-for-dollar match
Not state-specific. Open to innovative Australian start-ups and SMEs anywhere in the country, and listed on this page because businesses in this state qualify.
SafeWork Small Business Rebate
RollingSafeWork NSW · State
Rebate against eligible safety items only. The approved list targets higher-level controls that remove or reduce a hazard. Personal protective equipment, such as safety glasses, gloves and hard hats, is explicitly not eligible.
Ongoing. Open since 1 October 2018.
Who qualifies
- Small business owner or sole trader with an ABN
- Between 0 and 50 full-time equivalent workers
- Registered and operating in NSW, producing goods or providing services in NSW
- Trading for at least 6 months
- Application made in the name of the registered business owner
- Falls under the scope of the NSW Work Health and Safety Act 2011
- Charities and not-for-profits qualify if they employ between 1 and 50 FTE
Who does not qualify
- Anyone who has received the rebate in the past five years, including through a different ABN of the same business
- A co-owner of an ABN where a rebate has already been paid to the other owner
- Businesses with more than 50 full-time equivalent employees
- A subsidiary of a larger business
- Voluntary associations
- A charity or not-for-profit that employs nobody
- Anyone already rebated for that item by any Commonwealth, state, territory or local government
- Government departments and agencies
- Investment trusts, managed funds and strata title schemes
- Personal protective equipment, whoever is buying it
This is the only generally available NSW Government grant actually open to an ordinary small business as of 28 October 2026. It is worth $1,000 and it buys safety equipment.
Great Western Highway Closure Small Business Support Grants
Needs checkNSW Rural Assistance Authority · State
Service NSW states grants of up to $25,000 are available to eligible small businesses.
Who qualifies
- Small businesses affected by the Great Western Highway closure
- Full criteria are not published on any page we can reach
Who does not qualify
- Businesses not affected by the Great Western Highway closure
- Confirm the rest directly with the Rural Assistance Authority before applying: we cannot verify it at source
Marked unverified on purpose. The Rural Assistance Authority’s own programme page returns HTTP 403 to us, so no page we can read states the current deadline or the eligibility rules. The $25,000 figure is taken from Service NSW, the NSW Government’s own portal. We will not fill the gap from third-party grant directories.
NSW disaster relief loans for small business
Needs checkNSW Rural Assistance Authority · State
Low-interest recovery loans. The amount and the rate are not published on any page we can reach.
Who qualifies
- Small businesses affected by a declared natural disaster in NSW
Who does not qualify
- Anyone looking for a grant: this is a loan and it is repaid
- Businesses not affected by a declared natural disaster
Recorded because it sits on the NSW Government’s own small business GRANTS hub while being a loan you repay. Same 403 problem as the Great Western Highway grants: the administering authority’s pages are unreachable to us, so the terms stay unverified rather than guessed.
Supporting Women in Business (SWIB) Grants
ClosedNSW Government · State
The 2025-26 round opened 13 October 2025 and closed 10 November 2025. It was a closed, non-competitive round, open by invitation only.
Who qualifies
- Organisations delivering training, mentoring, networking or business development projects for women
- In the 2025-26 round, only organisations invited by the NSW Government
Who does not qualify
- Individual small businesses and sole traders, in every round. This funds delivery organisations, not business owners
- Organisations that were not invited, in the 2025-26 invitation-only round
- Anyone at all right now: the round closed on 10 November 2025
Widely listed by grant directories as a women’s small business grant. It is not one. SWIB funds organisations to deliver training, mentoring and networking projects for women in business, so the money goes to the delivery organisation rather than to a business owner. Previously named the Women in Business Networks Grants.
MVP Ventures Program
ClosedInvestment NSW · State
Stream 1: up to 50% of eligible project spend, maximum $50,000. Stream 2, for businesses that are majority women-owned and managed, regionally headquartered, or Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander majority-owned: up to 75%, maximum $75,000.
Round 3 opened 9 March 2026 and closed 10 April 2026. Rounds 1 and 2 are also closed.
What you put in
Stream 1 requires a co-contribution of at least 50%. Stream 2 requires at least 25%.
Who qualifies
- Active Australian Business Number (ABN)
- Headquartered in NSW
- An account with an Australian authorised deposit-taking institution
- A company incorporated in Australia under the Corporations Act 2001, or an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Corporation
- Holds intellectual property, or the rights to commercialise it
- Aggregated turnover of $400,000 or less in each of the three financial years before applying
- 10 or fewer full-time equivalent employees, including founders
- Project sits between Technology Readiness Level 3 and 9
- Funded activities carried out in NSW, and completed within 12 months
Who does not qualify
- More than 10 full-time equivalent employees, counting founders
- Aggregated turnover above $400,000 in any of the three prior financial years
- Businesses not headquartered in NSW
- Businesses that do not hold the IP or the right to commercialise it
- Projects below Technology Readiness Level 3, or already at market
- Projects that would go ahead in NSW anyway without government support
- Work carried out outside NSW
- Projects running longer than 12 months or shorter than 3
As of 28 October 2026 the NSW Government page still presents Round 3 under the heading "Current round" while stating that it closed on 10 April 2026, six months earlier. The programme is not accepting applications. Treat the heading as stale, not as evidence the round reopened.
