Following review by an independent assessment panel, 8 new grants totalling $225,108 have been made under Spacecubed’s Innovative Society Fund, supported by Lotterywest, and Funding Round #3 is now open with applications closing Thursday 24 November.
Below outlines the 8 initiatives with approved funding that align with the Funds mission to build a stronger culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in Western Australia.
In round two, Lotterywest IdeaStarter has approved funding for 3 ‘early stage’ innovative ideas with an aim to accelerate the number of Western Australians inspired to innovate, and equip them with the ‘mind-sets, skill-sets and tool-sets’ to develop innovative solutions and opportunities that can positively contribute to Western Australia being a smart, innovative society.
These 3 early-stage innovative ideas will be developed through Impact Seed’s current Western Australian incubator program, Innovate 2 Impact (I2I). This landmark multi-year program provides capacity building support and investment readiness support to Western Australian social enterprises and investors. $49,500 was approved towards eligible expenditure for these 3 early-stage innovative ideas, as program participants validate if their ideas have opportunity and progress them towards further investment or support.
In its second round, Catalyst has approved funding for 7 non-for-profit organisations to strengthen, progress and develop the innovation ecosystem in Western Australia. The approved funding initiatives are described below:
Enterprise Partnerships WA - $20,000, to enable co-design of an impact framework to demonstrate the social, economic and wellbeing impacts of EPWA’s existing Train-the-Trainer Enterprise Facilitation Program. The project will support local enterprise facilitators in Kalumburu and Balgo (Wirrimanu) to build capabilities in impact measurement and evaluation and ongoing implementation of the framework. It will support a better understanding of the indicators and pathways to wellbeing of First Nations entrepreneurship and foster innovation across the sector.
Business Foundations Ltd - $32,500, towards the Fremantle Innovation Ecosystem initiative which will formalise the existing activities of the local innovation service providers which aim to establish Fremantle as a centre for innovation in the blue economy, sustainability, and immersive technology sectors and foster a collaborative environment.
Noongar Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) - $26,060, towards scoping an Aboriginal Innovation Hub by developing a stronger understanding of the Aboriginal innovation ecosystem, consulting with Aboriginal innovation stakeholders and with innovation-interested young people to understand needs, and market validation for the Hub both as a workspace and a workshop space.
SW Angels - $41,198, to collaboratively design a strategy and framework for (Angel) investment across regional WA, building on the SW Angels model, including a brand proposition for regional investment, educating key stakeholders on the advantages of regional investment, and a proposed actionable educational program supporting regional enterprises and startups to access that investment.
St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls - $33,000, towards creating a diagnostic tool that measures entrepreneurial mindset and skill set as the priority areas, with the intention to share and scale these learnings across other WA Schools, once the testing has been validated. While diagnostic tools generally measure entrepreneurial mindset among university students and older entrepreneurs exist, there is no known instrument aimed at school students. Thus, this study aims to develop, pilot, test, and validate a new quantitative entrepreneurial mindset and skillset scale.
WA Plus - $20,000, to scope and define a Pilot “innovation do tank” in a key chosen area, bringing together key players and defining a vision to be achieved. Throughout six months, numerous workshops and one on one sessions will be undertaken to further refine the action areas, where opportunities for new businesses and innovation will be identified. Support will be provided to scope those new business ideas as they emerge.
Valued Lives Foundation Ltd - $2,850, towards appointment of Innovation Unit to work with a user led Board and leadership team to develop scope of works in preparation for the development of a full business case application. Initiative end goal is to develop (through use of a trojan horse application, designing innovative solutions to customised employment options for people with cognitive and development disability) organisational innovative capacity through the development of internal processes that are embedded into work practices and used to design innovative solutions to overcome barriers to social inclusion for people with disability.
The next funding round for both Lotterywest IdeaStarter and Catalyst funds will close on Thursday 24 November 2022. To learn more about the Fund, including who can apply and how the assessment process works, join an upcoming Virtual Information Session.
Our free, virtual information sessions are open for anyone interested in the Innovative Society Initiative. You do not need to have a current application to attend, and we encourage anyone who is interested in the initiative to join us and learn more. See upcoming times here.
Both Lotterywest IdeaStarter and Catalyst are supported by Lotterywest, as part of a 3 year grant to Spacecubed to support the growth of individuals and ideas in WA, and to build a more diverse, resilient community and economy for WA, by creating a pipeline of thriving resilient entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers, and building a thriving, resilient and sustainable Western Australia innovation ecosystem.
