Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01269:clause:1_3:p1
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01269
Segment Type: clause
Provision Reference: sch 1 cl 3 (pt 1/2)
Character Range: 7399–10616

3  Guiding Principles and Priorities for ARENA Financial Assistance

ARENA provides financial assistance to Australian researchers, innovators and businesses for projects that align with our strategic priorities or the objectives of the budget programs that ARENA is responsible for delivering.

Guiding principles

Our strategic priorities address the key challenges we aim to solve through the provision of financial assistance and knowledge sharing. We use the following guiding principles to identify and review our strategic priorities each year.

Maximum impact

ARENA strives to achieve maximum impact and value from the projects we fund. We consider the following when identifying our strategic priorities and focus areas within those:
     1.        Long-term impact: the potential to drive long-term impact versus short-term or interim solutions, unless such solutions are on the direct path to long-term impact.

     2.        High impact: each priority individually contributes to a significant part of ARENA's mission.

     3.       Current relevance and additionality: market pull or need for ARENA support, minimal overlap with other grant-funding efforts in the ecosystem, and potential for acceleration in Australia.

Responsive

ARENA is responsive to market conditions, technology developments and industry needs. We regularly review our strategic priorities to ensure we are providing financial assistance to have the highest impact. We aim to be agile, responding swiftly to take advantage of opportunities that could have a transformative impact.

Diversity

Given the uncertainty and risk inherent in researching, developing and commercialising new solutions, ARENA seeks diversity in its portfolio when providing financial assistance to ensure options are kept open for the future and its portfolio has an impact in different policy and economic scenarios.

Accordingly, we strive to ensure our overall portfolio includes activities at different stages of development on the commercialisation pathway, including:
       * research into, and development of, early-stage technologies that are world-leading or address specific Australian requirements

       * demonstration of the feasibility of new technologies, or supporting business models, that are novel in application

       * pre-commercial deployment of technologies where this is expected to improve the competitiveness of future projects.

Commercial focus

ARENA's financial assistance is commercially focussed and provided to advance technologies or business models towards commercial readiness. We seek to provide the minimum financial assistance needed to achieve an outcome, and in the most appropriate form, maximising efficiency and value for public investment.

ARENA provides financial assistance in the form of grants. Where there is the possibility of upside from a project in the future, ARENA may negotiate a recoupment mechanism that sees some or all grant funding returned in the event that the upside scenario eventuates. In so doing, ARENA ensures that funding continues to represent value for the Australian taxpayer.

ARENA's strategic priorities

For the period of this GFS (2024-25 to 2026-27),