Circular Economy Business Support Fund – Round 2, Stream 2 – Information bulletin and supporting events

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[Opening visual of slide with text saying, ‘Business Support Fund – Round 2: Information Session’, ‘25 May 2022’, ‘Sustainability Victoria’]

[The visuals during this webinar are of each speaker presenting in turn via video, with reference to the content of a PowerPoint presentation being played on screen]

Travis Hatton:

Hello all. Welcome to the session. We are just going to wait about a minute or so before we get started to let a few more people come through.

Just a hello to anyone that’s just joined us. I can see a few more people jumping into the session. We’ll probably get started in just one minute or so.

Okay. It looks like a few more people are starting to trickle through now so might end up just getting started. We’ve got a bit of a big session ahead of us today so hopefully we can get through it with a lot of time for your questions at the end.

Now thank you all for coming along today to today’s information session for the Business Support Fund Round Two. My name’s Travis Hatton. I’m the Program Lead for the Business Support Fund. I will apologise upfront. I’m just coming off a couple of weeks with COVID so my voice might break during the session so excuse me if I do need to have a bit of a cough as we go along. I do have a lot of things to read out to you.

Now before we get started today, I’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the many lands on which we’re meeting today and pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. For me that’s the lands of the Boon Wurrung people. I acknowledge that we live and work on the lands of the world’s oldest and most sustainable culture and I acknowledge their deep connection to earth of First Nations people and their invaluable contributions to our understanding of both climate change and the environment.

So today we are going to talk through a few things. We’ll go through some housekeeping, talk briefly about the policy context for our program, talk about what we’re going to fund, who will be funded, a little bit about finance, what won’t be funded, then we’ll go through the application process, some key dates, some commonly asked questions that we hear time and time again, and then you’ll have a chance to ask some Q&As at the end.

In terms of housekeeping before we get started this session is being recorded. It’s going to be posted to our website in early June. You can ask questions towards the end of the presentation. We do have a Q&A function. It’s currently switched off. We’ll switch it on as we get to the end of the presentation. Just if you do have a question while I am speaking write it down and hold it until the end when we open the Q&A function. What we usually find is if we keep that Q&A open early, we end up answering the questions as we go along anyway. If you have any burning questions write them down. If they’re not answered by the time, we get to the last slide please feel free to put it in to the Q&A.

If we can’t answer your question today which very likely might happen – maybe it’s a little bit too specific to your project, maybe we don’t know the answer – what I’d encourage you to do is to email our Grants Enquiries team and their email is available there on the screen. We’ll make sure somebody posts that in to the Chat as well so you can quickly access it if you need.

Now a little bit about policy context. Recycling Victoria is our circular economy plan in Victoria. It’s a $515 million investment to transform our waste in the recycling sector, create new jobs and build a more sustainable economy. This policy was released in February 2020 and is the policy that supports the Circular Economy Business Innovation Centre and its Business Support Fund which we’re here to talk about today.

The Business Support Fund is delivered through the $17 million Circular Economy Business Innovation Centre which is a mouthful to say. We just call it the CEBIC. The CEBIC is part of Recycling Victoria and it’s really focused on supporting businesses to innovate and to take advantage of circular economy opportunities beyond recycling in order to reduce costs and also create new revenue streams. The CEBIC was really designed to focus on waste avoidance and that’s the second target highlighted here on the screen.

What we have on the screen are four of the big targets in the Recycling Victoria policy on what we want to achieve in the next ten years. One of them is around diverting waste from landfill. The second one is around cutting waste generation by 15%. That’s about waste avoidance. The third one is around reducing the volume of organic material including food to landfill. And then the final one is ensuring every Victorian household has access to food and garden waste recycling or composting.

These are a few of the targets that we are working towards in a broad policy context. Our program, the Circular Economy Business Innovation Centre, and these grants, the Business Support Fund, are really aligned to that second target there which is about cutting total waste generation by 15%.

In terms of what we are going to be funding it really links back to that policy target. The primary objective of this fund is to avoid waste in Victoria. And that includes things like improved materials efficiency and also upcycling pre-consumer waste. Now all projects applying to this round of the Business Support Fund need to support that objective. Projects that also create new jobs in Victoria will be viewed favourably. One of the targets that we have in the Recycling Policy is the creation of new jobs in Victoria’s circular economy. Projects that do create jobs will be viewed positively as well.

This time round similar to the last round we have two streams. The first stream is focused on developing a circular economy business case. It’s really about things like feasibility projects. The second stream is focused on implementing a circular economy business case. So that’s actually getting something, building something, bringing something to life. I’m not going to read through the details too much on the screen but basically Stream 1 at a snapshot, we have grants of between $50,000 to $200,000. Individual organisations or collaborative partners can apply. You need to bring $1 for every dollar of funding that you are asking for. Projects have about a year to be completed before November 2023.

With the Stream 2 projects, so those implementation style projects, we actually have grants up to a million dollars available for a single applicant. Again, individual businesses or collaborative partners, $1 to $1 co-contribution, and you’ll have a little bit longer to finish those projects. The project will need to be finished by March 2024. So today I’m going to go through a few of the things in terms of what we are going to be funding, who we’re going to be funding and also what we’re not going to be funding just to give you some clarity around the role.

First thing up is that the Business Support Fund is supporting the circular economy business models and practices that avoid waste in Victoria. You will probably hear me talk about avoiding waste in Victoria a few times. Last time around we did have a lot of applications for typical recycling style projects that were not closely aligned to what we wanted to achieve so I really want to make sure at the end of today you know that we want to be having projects that avoid waste in Victoria and also projects that create jobs are great.

To achieve waste avoidance, we are looking at different circular economy business models and practices. We have a big list of what these models and practices are in the guidelines so I really encourage you to read them. But on screen we have four of those business models, these archetypal business models that we’re seeing in the circular economy. Now these models focus on waste avoidance and support it. Such as, product life extension models are a good example of this. In terms of extending the life of a product I’ll use the example of remanufacturing. You might focus on a project that looks to develop a new remanufacturing service to restore maybe a degraded product, maybe it’s a couch, maybe it’s a phone, something that would otherwise be wasted so they can instead be resold. Now a remanufactured product is going to prevent waste, it extends the life of that product, and it reduces the number of natural resources we need to mine.

Another example of a sharing model out there that I’ve used in the past is an Aussie platform called Car Next Door. Car Next Door is an online platform that allows people like me to borrow other people’s cars in my neighbourhood, so I do not need to own one a car myself. We are looking at supporting platforms like that as it reduces the number of products that individuals need to own. It reduces the amount of waste that is generated by creating those new products and extends the life of those products.

In addition to circular economy business models, we are also supporting circular economy business practices. You do not need to focus on developing an entire new business model to get funding. Perhaps you’re an existing business, you have products and services already, but you want to make those products and services more circular, more sustainable. We’re also supporting these circular economy business practices. Now the practices that you see on screen are really things that a business can do or use or provide to help our objective around avoiding waste and reducing the number of materials needed to produce products and services. Ultimately things like materials efficiency, better design, product stewardship during the use phase, they’re all contributing to waste avoidance by providing business solutions that extend the life of products or use less materials.

When it comes to product stewardship, I do want to touch on that. Often people think of product stewardship in the end-of-life phase. REDcycle is a really great example of a recycling-based product stewardship scheme, plastic being returned and being able to recycle it which is a great outcome. That’s not what we’re looking for here. With product stewardship in our program for this fund we’re not looking at end of life recycling. What we are looking for are solutions that are going to extend the useful life of a product as it is. A really great example of that is designing or implementing something like an extended warranty and repair program such as the lifetime repair program offered by Patagonia. We are looking at solutions that will help products stay at a higher value for longer in the market before we even need to have that conversation about how we recycle the product.

As an example, with our funding Stream 1 you could focus on developing and testing a business case. How would it work? How would it cost? What’s the benefit? Maybe you’ll run a pilot project and look at the results of that pilot project with a view to maybe expanding that to a national rollout. Or in Stream 2 you might begin a national rollout. You’ve already got a business case. There’s clear imperative for you to do this project and you just need to implement that at scale. So potentially you need new repair stations installed in your retail outlets just as an example.

In terms of the activities that we are looking to fund in Stream 1 these are really focused on solutions that will explore, test, demonstrate circular economy business case that could be implemented. Things like feasibility studies, redesigning products, and services, running pilots, trials and demonstrations. There’s a range of different activities. These are all on screen and in our guidelines and these are the kind of activities that you should be doing in your project to generate the outcome that we’re looking for in terms of creating a solution that has the potential to avoid waste in Victoria.

In Stream 2 the project activities that we are looking for are really focused on implementation. I don’t have a slide for that, so I do apologise. They are available in the guidelines. We’re looking for solutions that will implement something. Often that means buying equipment, starting a new business, doing what you need to get that business off the ground and running, new production lines, potentially it’s a new upcycled product that you’re developing. Maybe you need a new shed, maybe you need a new production line etcetera. Implementation activities twill get that business model or business practice happening.

Now in terms of the costs that we fund these are the things that you can apply for funding for or the things that you can co-contribute to the project. These are the kind of things that you’ll need to see in your application. We have a budget table that makes it very easy for you to select any of these costs that are applicable and let us know how much funding you want for the cost or how much co-contribution you are going to be providing for that cost. Such as, hiring new staff. Maybe you need a project manager to run it or maybe you need to engage with consultants. That’s particularly important for a Stream 1 feasibility style project. A lot of our past projects in Stream 1 did focus on using the support of external consultants to assist in leading the development of feasibility case studies, baseline data reports etcetera.

If it is a Stream 2 project you might be leaning a little bit more towards things like installation and commissioning, new capital purchases and assets, freight to get that piece of equipment from Overseas to Australia. Those kinds of costs are more than eligible, and they are the kind of things that we would expect to see in your project.

In summary just in terms of what is eligible for funding you need to focus on avoiding waste in Victoria. If you create new jobs that would be great but you don’t have to. You can only include eligible cost items in your budget table and your budget table is part of the application form.

In terms of who will be funded so every project needs one lead applicant. The lead applicant can either be a commercial or for-profit business or they can be an industry group and association. Those industry groups and associations may be registered charities as long as they identify as an industry group and association that is okay. We are thinking things like Research and Development Corporations (RDCs), like Dairy Australia, we’re thinking peak bodies, like agricultural peak bodies etcetera. If you’re an industry group and association you will know it already.

Now the lead applicant must have an ABN. They have to be operating for a minimum of two years by the application closing date. What that means is that your ABN needs to be active for two years by the 7th of July when the fund closes. If it’s not you will be ineligible and your application will not proceed to the next level if you apply as a lead applicant.

You also need to lead any collaborative partnerships according to the requirements set out in the guidelines if you did choose to join someone else and make a collaborative project. Applicants also must agree to comply with our funding terms and conditions as per the general Grant Funding Agreement and you’ll have access to review that during your application process. You will have a chance to check if there are any potential issues with your legal team and they might want to review the funding terms and conditions and raise any potential issues. You’ll have an opportunity to raise that during the application form but not afterwards. What I would suggest early is if you are planning on making an application get those terms and conditions, send them to your legal team now so they can start reviewing them before it gets too late. It’s not something you want to be rushing about trying to get legal guidance on in the last couple of days before making your application.

Applicants can apply as a single business as a lead applicant. That’s fine. Or they might apply as a lead applicant in a collaborative project. Applicants that choose to establish a collaborative project can do it with other organisations that support project delivery. Now this is completely optional. If you do choose to have a collaborative project with other organisations they will be considered the collaborative partners. Now if you do have a collaborative partner, they must have a direct clear role in the project. They must have an ABN. We don’t have date requirements on the ABN. And they must have a demonstrated co-contribution to the project. Now in Stream 1 that could be a financial contribution or an in-kind contribution and in Stream 2 that must be a financial contribution. We’ll go into that in a little bit more detail shortly.

Collaborative partnerships must also have a formal agreement such as a Memorandum of Understanding or an MOU in place before the project commences. We need to understand what the relationship is of that collaborative partnership before we enter a formal agreement with you in the Funding Agreement. Each collaborative partner will also be publicly announced as a collaborative partner should funding be awarded.

An example of a collaborative partnership project in Stream 1 is an industry association or a peak body that’s applying for funding to lead a project with several other businesses in their industry. The industry association will be the lead applicant. The other businesses would be the collaborative partners. They would all be making a contribution to the project and working together but our Funding Agreement will only be with the lead applicant which would be the industry association in this case.

Moving on to Co-contribution requirements. Now the minimum co-contribution for our projects is different from round one. It’s $1 to $1. For every dollar that you are asking for in funding you need to contribute $1. Now that can be provided by the lead applicant or by the collaborative partners if there are any. In Stream 1 at least 50% of your co-contribution needs to be cash. If you ask for $1 in funding from us, you need to give us 50 cents in cash and up to 50 cents in in-kind contributions as well. In Stream 2 we’re not allowing any in-kind contribution so all of your co-contribution must be financial which is cash only. An example of an in-kind cost is time spent on project activities by existing staff in their normal role or potentially donated goods and services relating to the project.

So commonly what we would see in a Stream 1 project where in-kind is allowed is somebody acting in their typical role, potentially the sustainability manager that might be providing oversight to a project at 10-20 hours a week for six weeks to see one part of the project delivery. They might hire new staff to run as a project manager. The new staff would be a financial contribution so it’s a bit different from in-kind.

If you do have any questions around co-contribution, please note that we can answer those afterwards. It is one area that some applicants do struggle to understand so we’re more than happy to provide some support there.

Now in terms of what we will not fund, I’d highly recommend you look at the fund guidelines. Now the things that I would really call out here that we won’t fund, we’re not going to fund recycling projects, we’re not going to fund waste to energy projects, including things like bioenergy, and we’re not going to fund you to make new products with recycled materials. None of those activities are eligible for funding and we did see quite a few applications for those kinds of projects last time around.

Now what I will let you know is we do have another fund open at the moment, the Markets Acceleration Fund. It closes on June the 2nd and it has a focus on using recycled materials in new products. If your project aligns to that what I would encourage you to do is jump online at the Sustainability Victoria Grants and Funding page and have a look at the guidelines for that program.

Now if your project does fall in to one of these categories, things that are not eligible for this fund, I would also recommend you have a look at the SV Grants and Funding page, sign up for a funding alert. You’ll be notified as soon as we release any new funding that might align with one of these. Recycling Victoria is a big policy. SV is leading roughly 18 different projects and the Business Support Fund is only one of those programs. We have a variety of other funding programs that may better align with the objectives that are not eligible for our round in the Business Support Fund.

Now in terms of costs that we will not fund there is a few things that we are not going to fund, and we don’t want to see included these in your budget table. This includes a lease or purchase of land or premises and lease of vehicles. They are a couple of common things that we don’t fund. Milestones such as permits, licensing and approval costs, you need to do that yourself and we can’t have that as an included cost. I’m not going to go through all of these but I do really encourage you to have a look at the guidelines when you are completing the budget table just to make sure that your costs are eligible.

We also will not fund any projects that have received funding or support for the same activities from other sources. If you have gone for another Government grant to fund your project already don’t come to us asking for more money because we won’t fund it and we will be asking you that during the application process. If you have already completed an activity and you’re coming to us for retrospective funding, we also won’t fund it. If you have completed activities or you’ve commenced activities prior to signing a Funding Agreement, we can’t establish a Funding Agreement with you. We won’t fund that.

If you’re undertaking a project to comply with regulation or a regulatory notice or order we won’t fund it. If you don’t meet regulatory or planning requirements by the set date in the fund, we won’t be able to give you any funding for your project either.

So key dates. We are going through this session quite quickly. Applications open today and will close on the 7th of July, so you have about five and a half weeks to get your applications in. It’s a little bit shorter than we normally allow but we have had the preview open for about six weeks. By now we are hoping that you are quite familiar and you’re ready to get started on your applications.

We’re going to have a business case writing workshop in early June. If you are looking at applying for a Stream 2 project, you will need to submit some kind of evidence in terms of a business case. That might be a business model canvas, a lean canvas, a business case, or a full business plan. We need some type of evidence attached to your application. This business case writing workshop will help you work through a process on developing a business model canvas which is basically your business model on a page. They’re quite easy to pull together and it’s going to help articulate to the panel what your project is, what the benefit is and make sure that you’ve thought through all the different elements of your project. We don’t have a date for that or a link for that but we will be loading that on to the website some time soon. What I would encourage you to do is sign up to the CEBIC newsletter so you can be alerted when that does come out or also just revisit the project page so you can see when the events are listed.

Now we’re also having an application writing workshop on Thursday the 23rd of June. Again, we do not have the registration open for that yet. We’re looking at opening the page early next week. In this session I’ll take you through the actual SmartyGrants application form and tell you about different ways to respond to questions and the kind of answers that we’re looking for. It will be a chance for you to ask questions about the application form. What I would encourage you to do is have a go at the application before you come to that session so if you do have any questions, we can triage them during a session with you and hopefully make the process a bit easier and clearer.

Now once the applications close on the 7th of July basically we’ll go through an assessment process. That can take several months between assessments and approvals. Unfortunately, it does take longer than we would like but we have reduced the amount of time it takes this time round between when you submit your application and when we can get you a notification. It’s expected to occur between July to October and we’re hoping that outcomes will be announced in October. What I will say is that this is an election year. There are a lot of competing priorities in the Government and there may be an instance where we miss that October announcement date in which case it will be a little bit later. We’re going to push as hard as we can to make sure you know your outcome as soon as possible though but these times are really only estimates at the moment.

Now all projects must commence within three months of that announcement and that is going to look like a commencement in early 2023. If you need any regulatory and planning approvals, especially for those Stream 2 projects, they’re going to need to be in place by March 31st 2023. And projects must be finished Stream 1 by November next year, and Stream 2 by March in 2024. Our program actually wraps up in July 2024 so we need all projects finished by March so we can actually go through a proper evaluation and program wrap up, which is why those dates are there.

Now as for the application process.

How to apply. Firstly, ensure that your organisation can apply, that your collaborative partners are suitable and that your project is qualified. You need to read the guidelines and the eligibility criteria. If you have any questions about the guidelines and the eligibility criteria, please get in touch with our Grants Enquiries team. They are the best people for you to contact. They’re great people and if they don’t know the answers to the question, they’ll get in touch with me so I can provide a response back to them.

It's important that you read our general Grant Funding Agreement. You must agree to and meet all the terms and conditions to be eligible for funding. If you have any issues, if your legal team has any issues, you’ll be able to raise them during the application process. As I said earlier you don’t want to be going through that at the last minute and we won’t be negotiating with you on the terms and conditions at a time later than you’re making your application. Please make sure that you read them. While you are drafting the application form if there’s any issues please raise them before you submit your application.

Read our Terms of Participation in Grant Programs. You can get links to both of these in the SmartyGrants application form. You’ll need to create an account and start your application on the SmartyGrants website. Links to that are available in the guidelines now, when you’re going through the page click on ‘How to Apply’ which is located on the left side of the website. Create an account, start your application, make sure you save your application diligently on every page. If you ever need to close it and come back to it later you can save and close and you can re-enter it. It doesn’t automatically save responses in the form so to avoid any heartache once you’ve put a lot of details into your grant application just make sure to save it all the time so you don’t lose any of your hard work. Submit your application by 11:59pm on Thursday the 7th of July. That’s our official deadline. I will say submit it the day before. Last time round we had quite a few people having technical issues or last-minute issues like legal issues, or they did not have their insurance details etcetera. Resulting in rushing at the last minute and missed out on getting their application in on time. Don’t be that person. Make sure you get your application in so you’re getting the best chance of actually progressing through to the next stage of assessment.

Once submitted you’re going to get an email acknowledging your application has been received. From this point on the application is in our hands. If for some reason you’ve submitted your application and you think “Oh no, I’ve missed something” or “I need to change some details” please let us know by contacting Grants Enquiries and we’ll see how we can help you out.

Now terms and conditions. I did talk about that just before. I’m going to go into it again in just a little more detail since it is really important. So read our Ts and Cs before you apply. Get your legal team to review them if you have one or seek external legal advice if you feel you need it. When you sign the application form, you’re going to be asked if you agree with the terms and conditions. If you have any issues with the terms and conditions you have to raise them in your application not after you make an application. The Terms and Conditions are generally not negotiable. It is misleading to ask us to assess your application on the basis that you accept the terms and conditions and then seek to negotiate them once you’re advised you’re successful. We don’t want to be in that situation, so we really encourage you and ask you to review the Terms and Conditions now before you press submit and let us know if you have any issues with them. You also need to read and agree to our Terms of Participation in Grant Programs.

The next part involves how your application will be assessed. We follow a merit-based assessment process. We assess you on three main areas which is what are you going to do, who are you and how are you going to deliver your project. What focuses on your project? What is your project going to do? What is the problem that it’s addressing? What is the solution that it’s providing? And what outcomes will it create. Your outcomes are going to want to create and focus on waste avoidance in Victoria. For a Stream 1 project you need to create something that has the potential to avoid waste. If it’s Stream 2 you need to be doing something that will directly avoid waste in Victoria. This is mandatory. If you create jobs, we are going to ask you that questions as well and it would be beneficial to your application.

In terms of weighting, Stream 1 is worth 50% and in Stream 2 it’s worth 40%. That means once the assessment panel makes their assessment, they are going to put certain weightings against different criteria. What you can see on the slide is which portion of your application is the most important part in terms of making sure you get high scores in addressing all of those merit criteria-based questions there.

When we are assessing the ‘who’ component of the criteria which is worth 20% for both Stream 1 and Stream 2 applications it relates to the ability to demonstrate that you have the right project team to deliver the project, you have the right skills, you have the right resources. If you have any delivery partners such as a consultant, be sure to include them in your project team in the application form because we want to know who you are working with. If you can give us that information and as much information about who is going to be involved in the project it’s going to look really good for your application because it will show the panel that you’ve thought about who you need in the project, what roles they’re going to be playing, what they’re doing, and you can tell us what their experience is. By doing so, you provide the panel with confidence really that you’re the right team to deliver the project.

Now moving on to the ‘How’. How is about demonstrating that the project is commercial and feasible. This is where you’re going to be completing your budget and where you’re going to be completing your milestones. You will be attaching evidence like a project plan if required or a Gantt chart. It’s about telling us how you’re going to undertake your project, what it’s going to cost, what are the things that are going to go into your budget and what’s the phasing of your project in terms of milestones. All our projects are set up with milestones as that is how our Funding Agreement is set up. We have a lot more details on that available including some examples in the SmartyGrants application form.

What I’ve found in the past is that budget tables and milestone tables are typically the areas that applicants fall over the hardest so please do refer to the examples. Please do come to the grant writing workshop. We are here to provide you support and want to make sure that your questions are answered and you’re completing things fully so that the panel can make a good assessment of what your project is.

We also assess the projects on the merit of value for money. It’s not a weighted criteria but the panel will be looking at the costs and the benefits associated with your project and weighing that up against other projects to see which present the best value for money. If you have a million-dollar project that’s only going to deliver a really small benefit in terms of waste avoidance that won’t look like good value for money in comparison to a cheaper project that has a bigger outcome in terms of waste avoidance. This is a competitive process and to put your best foot forward you want to make sure that your costs are reasonable, present good value for money and are going to deliver a good impact in terms of the policy objective of waste avoidance in Victoria.

Frequently Asked Questions. Now before we get into the FAQs, and this will be the last slide of the presentation. What I will let you know is that the Q&A function should now be open or is about to open. If your question isn’t on this slide, if I haven’t addressed it during the presentation, please post it into the Q&A now. Start plugging in your questions. We’ve got a team of helpers on site who will start publishing those questions. Some of the questions will be responded to in writing and some I will answer live. If you see a question that does get published that you like just give it a thumbs up. It will show us that it’s an important question and we need to address it during this session.

Now before we start answering your questions, I will start by just answering some of these Frequently Asked Questions. One of the first things that we get asked is can you meet with someone at SV to discuss your project idea or application. No. Not really because it’s a competitive process. We can’t meet with you to discuss your project or application. However, you can if you do have any questions, general questions, email our Grants team for general advice and we’ll do our best to help you. We may not be able to answer all of your questions and we definitely can’t review your application or provide advice on the merits of your proposed project. But if you’ve got questions about co-contribution, or simple questions like that, we’re more than happy to help you out. You can give us a call or you can email the line.

Now another question that we see is:

Q: My project will focus on something. Is this eligible?

Or:

Q: Which funding program is the most appropriate for my project?

We do have a few different funds available at the moment or coming up soon. We’ll have more funds available over the next year or so. We often receive questions about whether your project idea is eligible for this fund or what funding can you apply for. We don’t tend to answer those questions. You know your project in detail and in depth and you need to have a look at the eligibility criteria for each of the funds available and you need to make that assessment. We can’t make the assessment for you on where you fit. So please go through the guidelines in detail, look at each section in detail, re-read the guidelines and consider how your project meets the eligibility and merit criteria. Look at the questions in the application form. If you can’t answer the questions, if it doesn’t seem right, let us know. Send us an email. We can see how we can help you out.

Now another question.

Q: Can I be a project partner in more than one project or application?

Yes. You can be a project partner in more than one funding application. That is totally fine.

Q: Can I submit multiple applications for different projects?

Yes. You can submit multiple applications for different projects. For example, you could apply to both a Stream 1 and Stream 2 project. But the caveat on that example is you don’t want to be applying for a Stream 1 feasibility project and a Stream 2 application to implement that project because you won’t be able to demonstrate the feasibility yet. You haven’t done the work. If you are applying for a Stream 2 project, you need to be able to demonstrate feasibility before you’ll be eligible for that funding. All applications will be assessed using a contested process and the merit criteria in the fund guidelines.

A couple more questions.

Q: Can a single funding application include funding for multiple projects?

No. We’ll only fund one project per application but that project can include multiple parts. For example, in a feasibility style project you might want to undertake a baseline a waste audit, collect data and complete surveys, maybe you want to run a pilot project, maybe you want to do a costs benefits analysis. We’re happy for you to have multiple components of that project as long as it’s about forming one particular idea that could generate a solution that could be implemented.

Q: Can I apply for multiple funding programs?

You can apply for multiple programs if they are for different projects. You cannot apply for funding for the same project in more than one of SV’s funding programs. If you have applied for this project in another funding program you can’t apply again unless you’ve been rejected from that fund, and it’s closed. If you do apply for this particular fund as well as another fund at the same time, we will ask you to withdraw from one of those funds because you won’t be able to be successful in both.

Now that’s all of our FAQs that we have prepared so what I might do is throw to Jess who’s out there and see if we have any questions from the audience.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis. There are a few questions that have come through, so I will go to the first one which is:

Q: Will there be a second round of Stream 2 funding in the future?

Travis Hatton:

We’re looking to exhaust all funding that we have remaining in the program in this round. That’s our ideal scenario because that means we get more projects on the ground faster. I would suggest if you’re ready to have a Stream 2 project, an implementation project, apply in this round. I can’t talk about future rounds. We haven’t planned any at the moment. Unless we get additional funding for the program in the future it’s likely that we won’t.

Jessica Aceski:

Thank you. The next question is:

Q: We are a sole trader at the moment but are going through the process of becoming a company. Is there a minimum amount of time required to be a company as the legal structure or is our situation okay?

Travis Hatton:

I would probably direct that question to our legal team. I couldn’t provide the legal advice on that and it does seem a pretty specific eligibility question. What I would get you to do is email our Grants Enquiries team with that question. They’ll be able to get some legal advice and get back in touch with you.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis. The next question is:

Q: My organisation provides skills training on all aspects of the circular economy including resource recovery. These skills training courses are very comprehensive. Is this eligible?

Travis Hatton:

What I would probably suggest with that one is having a look at the funding guidelines, the kind of activities that we would fund, and seeing whether you fall into that. Providing general education, I do not believe is an eligible funding activity. The projects in Stream 1 need to focus on developing an opportunity that can be implemented that will avoid waste in Victoria. In Stream 2 you’re going to be implementing something that will have a direct impact on reducing waste in Victoria. If you feel that you meet the criteria through what you’re doing, then that’s the case that you’ll need to demonstrate in your project application.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis. Next question is:

Q: We are wholly Victorian based but our client base is global not just Victoria. While reduction in waste is a primary focus of our product offering our client base is very broad. As our focus is not just Victoria, will this make us ineligible for funding?

Travis Hatton:

It really depends on what your project is. We’re looking for projects that will avoid waste in Victoria. I believe at least 50% of project activities need to be occurring in Victoria. If you develop a solution it needs to be able to be implemented in Victoria or if you’re implementing a solution it has to be in Victoria. We need to understand those benefits – if you’re a manufacturer for example, your manufacturing plant may be located in Victoria. Maybe you’re developing a project that will increase materials efficiency of your manufacturing process. The benefit will be seen in Victoria. The products that you generate might be distributed nationally or globally but the benefit of that particular example was waste being reduced in Victoria. That’s what we’re looking for in this policy and in this program, reducing waste in Victoria. If your initiative also reduces waste outside of Victoria let us know that. I think it’s a good outcome for the circular economy and as long as you’re meeting the requirements set out in the funding guidelines projects can have of extra benefits tied to them and we do assume that we’re going to see extra benefits whether that be environment benefits, social benefits, economic benefits. I really encourage you to outline the full benefit that your project will bring in addition to waste avoidance in Victoria.

Jessica Aceski:

Okay. Thanks Travis. The next question is:

Q: Our business does other things that aren’t involved in the project. Is it okay or do we need a completely separate business that only deals with the project?

Travis Hatton:

We work with a range of businesses, multi-national businesses, small businesses that are niche circular economy businesses. Using an example of materials efficiency potentially, it’s a dairy manufacturer. They make cheese. Maybe it is to do with one of their production lines and they are looking to increase the efficiency on. That project would be specific to that one production line, not all their production’s lines. That would be fine if it is meeting the minimum requirements that are set out in the fund guidelines.

What I would suggest doing if you had a specific question with your project and I if I have not answered the question very well, send us an email and we could provide you some better advice in writing. I probably need to understand the question in a little bit more detail.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis. There’s a few more questions still to answer. The next one is:

Q: If a consultant is used to complete a feasibility study is this a collaboration?

Travis Hatton:

Not usually. No. That consultant would generally be a delivery partner. A delivery partner can be part of your project team and you can put them in your application form as a delivery partner. The question would be are they contributing to the project or are they providing a service to the project at a cost? All collaborative partners need to contribute to the project whether that be financially or in-kind if it’s in Stream 1. With consultants what we generally see and recommend is that they are delivery partners and that they are engaged by the lead applicant to deliver a service to the project. It’s typically how it works. It’s not always how it works. In Stream 1 we did fund one consultant as a lead applicant that is working with a business group in Victoria on a project. How you approach it is up to you as long as you’re meeting the eligibility requirements. It’s going to be how the project kind of best works for you as long as it’s eligible. Consultants can apply lead applicant as a business. They could be a collaborative partner if it makes sense, that they have a clear role in the project and they’re delivering a co-contribution to the project, or which is generally the easiest scenario, they’re a delivery partner, they’re providing a service to the project at a cost.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis. Next question is:

Q: Are there any restrictions on the size of the organisation applying for funds?

Travis Hatton:

No. We don’t have any requirements on FTE or turnover. But you will be assessed based on who your organisation is as part of the merit criteria. We will look at you as an organisation, what your role is, what the impact of the project is, what the likelihood that the funding will achieve an outcome that can be sustained in the long term. We won’t be able to fund sole traders. So that’s probably the only limitation on the size of a business.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis. Did you want me to read out the questions that have been answered in the Chat as well or just the ones that you’ll be answering?

Travis Hatton:

Maybe just new ones. I mean if you feel like we need to add some extra context to some of the ones that have been answered in the Chat feel free to yell them out. I don’t mind.

Jessica Aceski:

Sure. I’ll read this one though because I do think it’s important. This question is:

Q: Can we start a project before the outcomes are announced?

No. All projects must not have started before the Funding Agreement is signed.

Travis Hatton:

I will say with that one we do get the question a lot. You can’t start any of the activities that you’re asking for funding for but we do understand that you might want to start some project planning, getting your ducks in line, getting ready for a potential outcome so that you can start the project sooner rather than later. But they’re kind of internal things that you can do to set yourself up for success. You don’t want to be engaging in activities, hiring people, signing contracts, buying things until you know you have the money. If you do any of that before the contract goes through, we will not fund it and you are putting yourself at risk.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis. Next question is:

Q: Would you consider mitigation of plastic microfibres from textiles as pollution to avoid?

Travis Hatton:

I’m not sure if that project aligns with the objectives of the fund which is to avoid waste generation in Victoria. We’re talking about reducing waste not making products more sustainable. If you can make a case on how that project aligns with the objectives of the fund which is to avoid waste in Victoria, please feel free to make that case in your application. I’m not the best person to tell you whether or not that is eligible because you need to make an assessment based on the eligibility criteria in the guidelines. Read it through in detail and if you’re convinced that your project can deliver on that objective make a compelling case in your application form.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis. The next question is:

Q: As the funding is $1 to $1 if the project is $3 million for implementation will the funding be limited to just $1 million from SV as we are funding the remaining $2 million?

Travis Hatton:

Yes. We will only fund up to a maximum of $1 million. What I will say is that we will fund up to a maximum of $500,000 in Stream 2 projects if they don’t exceed 7,500 tonnes of waste avoidance. To get that extra funding, anything above $500,000, you need to make sure that your project will at least avoid 7,500 tonnes of waste per annum. The maximum individual grant that we will give a project is $1 million and as an example in our Stream 1 projects we have projects that we have funded $500,000 in terms of a project that had a cost of around $5 million. So, we set a maximum amount. We will not go over that threshold. If you contribute more funding to a project that is great. We call that leverage and we like projects that have a lot of leverage with them. But we won’t expend any more money than the amounts that we can do which is $1 to $1 up to $1 million.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis. The next one is:

Q: Cutting waste by 15% over someone who is cutting waste by 20%, is this more important over volume of reduction?

Travis Hatton:

The cutting waste by 15% is a policy target for the entire state of Victoria. What we’re saying there in the Recycling Victoria policy is by 2030 across our entire state cut generation of waste by 15%. That doesn’t relate specifically to this project or program. We have set minimum targets with tonnages knowing that a certain amount of tonnage will help contribute to that broader state target. This is a competitive process. If you’re a Stream 2 project for example that applies for a project that will avoid 500 tonnes of waste that won’t be as competitive potentially as a project that avoids 5,000 tonnes of waste. You want to make sure you meet the minimum requirement of 500 tonnes per annum. If you exceed that minimum requirement, it will be more advantageous in a competitive process potentially. It’s about the net amount of tonnes per annum that you’re reducing.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis. There’s still a few more questions to answer which we have time for. The next one is:

Q: Would moving a part time employee to a permanent position be classified as job creation?

Travis Hatton:

I believe that we outline the rules around job creation in the guidelines so I would probably just want to double check that one in the guidelines. I believe so if you’re increasing a 0.5 FTE. I believe we have conditions around if an employee was going to be made redundant and is otherwise kept on as an employee. There are conditions you can read more about in the guidelines and also in the information bulletin. I’d recommend maybe getting our legal team, our grants team to check that for you. So please email that through and we can provide you some written guidance.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis.

Q: Can peak bodies, not for profit or charities apply for Stream 1 to develop a business case or does the lead applicant need to be a for profit business?

Travis Hatton:

Industry groups and associations can apply even if they are charities or other not for profits. If you’re not an industry group or association but a charity, so for example St Vincent’s De Paul, you won’t be able to apply as a lead applicant at this stage. No. Charities can apply as a collaborative partner. It’s either a commercial business, a business that generates profit. The guidelines outline the criteria set in terms of what businesses can apply. Businesses, industry groups and associations can apply.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis. The next one is:

Q: Does the lead applicant have to have their headquarters based in Victoria?

Travis Hatton:

No. What we’re looking for is outcomes in Victoria. I do believe we have requirements in the eligibility. In Stream 1 you must develop a solution that could be implemented in Victoria and reduce waste in Victoria by 500 tonnes. If your head office is based in New South Wales for example and you have national operations and the project that you are implementing reduces waste in Victoria that is fine. If it reduces waste across Australia that is also fine if we’re seeing the implementation benefit, that minimum benefit in Victoria of the 500 tonnes per annum.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis. There are just two more questions to go before we wrap up.

Q: Can this item be considered as an in-kind co-contribution – rent of space in a project partner’s site so that a cleaning machine can be installed which is required for a pilot project?

Travis Hatton:

I believe that lease or rent of space is not an eligible cost in a project which means it would not be eligible as an in-kind contribution either. I would encourage you to write in to our Grants Enquiries team because that one’s quite specific and I probably can’t provide the best advice on that at the moment.

Jessica Aceski:

Thanks Travis. We’ve just got one more question.

Q: Who determines an industry association? Is it industry membership for a purpose?

Travis Hatton:

It’s a good question. Industry groups and associations – what we’ll do after this is provide some more advice in the information bulletin. It’s a question I’ve heard a couple of times today. I understand there’s requirements around what forms an industry group or association so I think we do need to articulate those a little bit clearly for you. But examples that I can provide of an industry group or association is something like a peak body, Citrus Australia, a Research and Development Corporation (RDC), someone like Dairy Australia. A group that sits above businesses to supports businesses. I will need to update the information bulletin and the definitions in the program with some more advice after this. If you did want to email our Grants Enquiries team, please through your enquiry so we have it on file to best respond to the question.

I apologise that I cannot respond to it better at the moment.

Do we have any other questions popping through Jess?

Jessica Aceski:

We have a couple of questions that are quite specific so it may be ones to include after the session.

Travis Hatton:

Okay. I have asked Jess not to put across any questions that are too specific to a project and around kind of eligibility of specific project elements. If we have not answered it either in writing or have not answered it over the phone and you do have a question and you have posted that question or it’s something that you want to ask afterwards really encourage you to just send it through to our Grants Enquiries email. They also have a phone number that you can call but I think email is probably best. We can get back to you in the next couple of days with any responses to your outstanding questions.

But we do not have any other questions – is that right Jess?

Jessica Aceski:

Yep. All our questions are answered.

Travis Hatton:

Well thank you very much. If we don’t have any other questions then I might wrap up, just say thank you for coming along today. It’s been a good session. I’m really excited and I know we’re all excited about the outcomes from this next round. And we’re very appreciative that you’ve come along today. Thanks for your interest in the fund. You want to help the Government and you achieve these objectives with waste avoidance which has so many benefits in terms of the circular economy environment, people, and planet. We’re really excited to be seeing what you bring to us and if you do have any questions, please feel free to email or phone the Grants Enquiries team. Do come along to the grants writing workshop if you have any questions which will be later in June. If you are applying for a Stream 2 project and you need some help in terms of how to craft a business model canvas do keep an eye out for the event that we will be launching soon, maybe the second week of June we’ll be having that event. Do come along, ask questions, ask as many questions as you can or as you need to. Come along to the sessions that we’ve got, read the guidelines and get your application in as early as you can. Definitely not on the last day.

But thank you very much for joining us today. I hope we’ve been able to help you out. We will have a recording of this posted up in the next week or so, so if you did need to refer to anything feel free to watch the video or send the video to anyone that missed this session. All of the guidelines and application form are now online and available for you to start perusing. Once again, thank you very much and I will wrap up there.