Smart Internet Launches Alliance Program alongside ACT Industry Consortium for Small-Medium Enterprise

Canberra - 20 April 2004 - ACT Minister for Economic Development, Business and Tourism Ted Quinlan MLA today announced the launch of Smart Internet’s Alliance Program and Australia’s first state/territory based industry consortium, connecting ACT SMEs to the valuable resources and outcomes of Australian world-class research & development.

The Consortium is proudly assisted by the ACT Government’s Knowledge Fund to the tune of $120,000 over 2 years and supported by National ICT Australia (NICTA), Ted Quinlan introduced four elite Canberra businesses as the inaugural members of the ACT Industry Consortium; Catalyst Interactive, The Distillery, Wizard Information Systems and Epicorp.

Minister Quinlan commented that “Many of Australia’s SMEs don’t know what public sector research is being done, what has been commercialised and how this contributes to the GDP or creates new global brands. Added to this, research costs can be prohibitive for SMEs and their relationships with Australia’s research facilities is minimal.”

In spite of the fact that over $7 billion in cash and in-kind have been committed to CRC’s for research activities, including $1.8 billion by the Federal Government, $1.8 billion by universities, $1.3 billion by industry and almost $1 billion by CSIRO, knowledge of CRCs among SMEs is virtually non-existent and the mechanisms for SMEs to productively interact with CRCs and their university partners are largely unknown.

A key focus of the ACT Government is industry development and the proposal for the Smart Internet Alliance Program was evaluated competitively against other submissions for Knowledge Fund support. A key requirement to qualify for funding is the ability to demonstrate the value return to the Territory.

“It was considered that enabling collaborative R&D with Australia’s top academics would not only result in new products and revenue but would also bring in new skills and knowledge and further encourage local entrepreneurship.” Said Ted Quinlan.

As a supporter of the ACT Industry Consortium, NICTA will provide additional resources or funding to extend the SMEs R&D projects where there are natural synergies in a technology direction. NICTA and Smart Internet CRC will run parallel but co-ordinated programs to engage Australian industry in order to deliver a greater benefit to the SME

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