Grants in Information Technology

The NSW Government is offering a 10% rebate for digital games with a minimum Qualifying NSW Expenditure of $500,000. This initiative complements the Australian Government’s Digital Games Offset and is administered by Screen NSW. The program aims to accelerate the growth of the NSW digital games sector, attract investment, grow employment, and retain talent in NSW.

The Industry R&D Infrastructure Fund will encourage businesses in Victoria to invest in new or improved R&D infrastructure to support the expansion of Victoria’s R&D capability across important industry sectors and increase company R&D spending. The funding with grants up to 50% of project costs, ranging from $250,000 to $2 million can benefit a business, an industry, or both. However, it must demonstrate how the project will increase Victoria’s business expenditure on R&D in the medium to long term.

The grant provides support to the development of original early-stage concepts from game developers focusing on new projects and new voices in Victoria.

The $30 million Future Industries Investment Program is a competitive grant program that provides uncapped funding for projects with matched investments of at least 50 per cent or eligible businesses that can create at least 20 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs in NSW.

The VPF program assists digital game companies and key creatives in Victoria in creating and publishing a variety of engaging high-quality digital games. It offers funding for the pre-production, production, and post-production phases of game development for PC, consoles, mobile, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), or extended reality (XR).

Screen Australia will provide grants of up to $150,000 per successful application for production of a digital game with a budget up to $500,000. The initiative will run for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years. Higher budget games are likely to be able to receive Australian Government support through the announced Digital Games Tax Offset.

The Digital Games Tax Offset (DGTO) offers a 30% refundable tax offset for qualifying Australian development expenditure (QADE) from 1 July 2022 for eligible game developers. The offset is available for the completion, ongoing development, or porting of digital games, subject to eligibility criteria, including certification by the Arts Minister and at least $500,000 of qualifying expenditure. The offset is capped at $20 million per company (or group of connected or affiliated companies) per income year. Applicants must have an an ABN and be either an Australian resident company or a foreign resident company with a permanent establishment in Australia.