In less than 50 days Canberrans have developed over 100 original innovation projects and the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) has been inundated with intro meeting requests from new entrepreneurs, small business owners and startups exploring funding opportunities for their innovation projects.

“The quality of emerging entrepreneurs has always been high in Canberra, but in 2020, maybe due to the ongoing challenges this year has presented us with, we’ve seen a boom in new ideas generated by local entrepreneurs and increased demand for support.”
– Arthur Pappas, CBRIN Growth Associate – acceleration & funding

In July, CBRIN had been given the task to allocate additional funding from the ACT Government to the current Innovation Connect Grants, plus an additional grant to help established businesses think innovatively through Covid-19 called the Boosting Innovation Grant and support with accelerating startup growth through the GRIFFIN Accelerator.

In less than 2 months, there has been over 100 unique applications submitted for innovative funding opportunities, more than 150 entrepreneurs were met in 45 days and over 20 local business leaders, mentors and investors across different industries have been engaged to serve on panels to independently select the most innovative projects that will be supported.

 “The diversity and breadth of ideas coming from Canberran entrepreneurs has been incredible. We’ve seen ideas on helping businesses return their staff to work in the COVID environment, research base talent identification in elite sporting teams and even seaweed that reduces CO2 emissions.”
-Irene Zhen, CBRIN Growth Associate – innovation education

Overall, it has been the biggest round of funding engagement with early stage startups we have seen and it demonstrates the appetite and the ease of access to new business ideas that emerge out of Canberra.

“It is incredibly uplifting to see ACT entrepreneurs unrelentingly strive to pursue their innovations – these ideas create impact and can change the world, now.”
– Zachary Dowse, CBRIN Growth Associate – incubation

Did you miss out? Not to worry, there are still scholarships available for the upcoming Idea to Impact workshop series.