What is New Air Combat Capability Industry Support Program (NACC ISP)?
The New Air Combat Capability Industry Support Program (NACC ISP) provides funding Australian businesses and research organisations to help them win work in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program.
Background
The Australian Government’s Defence Industry Policy Statement – Building Defence Capability: a Policy for a Smarter and More Agile Defence Industry Base announced over $445 million of Programs that industry can access to improve their competitiveness, their capacity for innovation, their ability to enter export markets, their opportunity to win work locally as well as improve the skills of their workforce.
The New Air Combat Capability – Industry Support Program (NACC ISP) was established in conjunction with the Australian Government approval to acquire the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) under Project AIR 6000.
Objectives
The New Air Combat Capability Industry Support Program (NACC ISP) aims to help defence industry businesses to improve their:
- capability
- competitiveness and
- capacity for innovation
Funding
The New Air Combat Capability Industry Support Program (NACC ISP) offers Australian industry and research organisations three streams of assistance. Applicants must invest the same dollar value of the funding they are seeking.
Stream A: Grants of up to $1,000,000 over a period of no more than 36 months (plus any approved extensions), for the development of new or improved JSF:
- technology
- product
- process or
- service.
Stream B: Grants of up to $250,000 over a period of no more than 18 months (plus any approved extensions), for the development of new or improved JSF:
- technology
- product
- process or
- service.
Stream C: Grants of up to $300,000 with no more than $100,000 per financial year, for a period of no more than 36 months for:
- Australian universities
- Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs)
- Publicly Funded Research Agencies (PFRAs) or
- a company controlled by one of the above.
Eligible Projects
Eligible Activities are defined as follows:
- For Stream A Grants, Eligible Activities are those necessary to develop a new or improved JSF technology, product, process or service that is required by entities within the JSF supply chain, and which can demonstrate more than one JSF
- For Stream B Grants, Eligible Activities are those necessary to develop a new or improved technology, product, process or service to enhance a company’s competitiveness in winning work from entities within the JSF supply chain; or to engage in a study effort that relates to a capability required by entities within the JSF supply chain or the JSF Program Office.
- For Stream C Grants, Eligible Activities are those necessary to undertake a research effort that leads to JSF industry capability enhancements or manufacturing improvements required by entities within the JSF supply chain or the JSF Program Office.
- In respect of all grants (regardless of the stream applied for), Eligible Activities must be directly related to maximising Australian industry involvement in the JSF production, sustainment and follow on development.
- Where the Applicant is a CRC, its activities which are the subject of the Commonwealth Agreement between the CRC and the Department of Industry and Science, (that is, the work for which the CRC was awarded its CRC Program funding grant) will not be considered Eligible Activities. Program funding will not be provided for any such activities.
The exact nature of activities which are Eligible Activities will vary from Project to Project. Examples of the types of activities that will be considered Eligible Activities, provided in the context of the assessment of Eligible Expenditure, include:
- salary costs for employees;
- plant and equipment, including its installation and commissioning;
- expenditure on contractors;
- licence costs for IP; and
- prototyping and first article qualification costs that are not reimbursable from a JSF Prime or OEM,
Eligible Applicants
To be eligible for the New Air Combat Capability – Industry Support Program (NACC ISP), an applicant must:
- be a certain type of entity;
- have ownership, access to, or the beneficial use of, any intellectual property necessary to carry out the Project;
- demonstrate an ability to fund the costs of the Project (other than those covered by the Program funding sought by the Applicant);
- where the Project proposed by an Applicant is to be undertaken by a consortium or a trust, comply with any additional application criteria as specified in the Customer Guidelines;
- not be one of the companies engaged on the development of the JSF and listed in an attachment to the Customer Guidelines as a ‘JSF Prime’; and
- not be named by the Affirmative Action Agency as an organisation that has not complied with the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Cth).
An Eligible Applicant must be one of the following:
For Stream A Grants and Stream B Grants:
- a Non tax exempt company; or
- an Australian University, Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) or a Publicly Funded Research Agency (PFRA).
For Stream C Grants:
- a Non tax exempt company which is controlled by an Australian University, CRC or PFRA; or
- an Australian University, CRC or PFRA.
Timing
Applications close 30 June 2023.
