Carr unveils $2.4m in commercialisation grants

James Riley
Monday, 03 August 2009 08:21

Business IT - Technology

Industry Minister Kim Carr has announced $2.4 million in grants to 38 companies through the Howard government-initiated Commercialising Emerging Technologies (COMET) program, including funding to 13 firms in the ICT sector.

Perth-based software developer Rivermiss, South Australia’s Red Button Technologies, Victoria-based Oodle.com and Queensland’s Advise Rehab are among the ICT compaies that received $64,000 in COMET funding to develop strategies to take their products to market.

Senator Carr’s office said the funding was designed to help small Australian companies get innovations into the market to boost the economy and support high-value, highly-skilled jobs.

The Rivermiss product was designed from the ground-up in Australia as a plug-in that turns Microsoft Outlook – and its global base of more than 400 million users - an intuitive and cohesive personal workload organising platform. The software allows lets customers better manage emails and to organise and schedule their workload much more effectively.

Red Button Technologies has developed a telecommunications product development and operational environment, and says it will use the COMET funding to for strategic business planning, market researcj, intellectual property strategies, as well as finalising its working protoype.

The Advise Rehab Software uses a real-time feedback model in the healthcare sector to predict and monitor the potential and expected recovery time, and rehabilitation costs for injured people.

Melbourne-based Oodles.com provides a Web-based just-in-time car rental price comparison and booking service, eliminating a manual searches and still rewarding frequent flyers with points for each rental.

The program includes the services of a COMET business adviser, who works with the companies on market research and developing strategic business plans, as well as investigating IP strategies to bring their products to market.