Austrade announces the new rules around the Export Market Development Grant Round 4 (EMDG Round 4)

The Export Market Development Grant Round 4 (EMDG Round 4) provides funding for exporters with revenue below $20 million.  The EMDG Round 4 covers the 2025-26 and 2026-27 years (i.e. you are applying for 2 years of funding).

Note Applications open 12 November 2024.

EMDG Round 4 Program itself

The EMDG Round 4 Program is an eligibility based program, which means if you are eligible, and apply before the round closes, and you incur appropriate expenses, you will receive a grant agreement to cover money you expect to spend in future periods. 

Note each application is assessed in the order it is received and the grant round for that particular tier will close when funding has been fully allocated.

The program is a matched funding program.  For example, if you are a Tier 1 exporter and applied under the EMDG Round 4 for the maximum $30,000 in grant funding, you will need to spend at least $60,000 in eligible expenses each year in order to receive the $30,000 in grant funding.

If you only spend $50,000, you will only receive $25,000 in grant funding.

And if you spend less than $40,000, you will not receive any grant funding at all, and will be asked to repay any grant funds advanced to you.

At the end of each year, you prepare a declaration showing how much you spent on eligible expenditure in that year which will be used to determine the final payment of your grant funds.

Business Eligibility for the EMDG Round 4

The key eligibility requirements is that the business:

• has an ABN (and this includes sole traders, partnerships and trusts),
• has revenue or turnover of more than the minimum required for each Tier as noted in the table above but less than $20 million, for the year ended 30 June 2024
• have (and show) the capacity to spend at least $20,000 per financial year of your own money on your proposed marketing and promotional activities (exclusive of the grant amount)
• have been conducting the business under the same ABN for at least two years
• have a high-quality plan to market for marketing or promoting eligible products in a foreign country
• is exporting eligible products of substantially Australian origin to overseas countries other than New Zealand.
• For Tier 1 you must not have previously exported eligible products and be ready to export
• For Tier 2 you must have established export revenue, commensurate with the size of your business and the value of your product or service; are expanding your marketing and promotional activities (i.e. you must be doing more than you have before as the grant is for new expanding activity); are undertaking marketing and promotional activities targeting existing markets that you are currently exporting to
• For Tier 3 grant, you must have established export revenue, commensurate with the size of your business and the value of your product or service; are expanding your marketing and promotional activities (i.e. you must be doing more than you have before as the grant is for new expanding activity); are undertaking a strategic shift. A strategic shift is a change in your business strategy including operational and/or supply chain readiness that supports changing your marketing or promotional activities to target a new export market. at the time you apply for a grant and at all times while you are a grantee, will be targeting one or more of the key markets (see below) and that the proposed marketing and promotional activities will be specifically for that market(s) only.
• Are up to date with tax lodgements

Note you can receive up to 8 years of grants so you can apply again.

What are Eligible Products under the EMDG Round 4

To be an eligible product, your product(s) must be of substantially Australian origin and can be goods, services, events, intellectual property, know-how and software.

Services include tourism services within Australia provided to foreign persons.  Non tourism services can include services provided in Australia as long as certain conditions are met and the services are not specifically excluded.

Events can include online events if held by an Australian person.

For software the work to develop the software needs to be substantially done in Australia.

Remember, getting a foreign person or business to spend money in Australia may qualify as an eligible product.

There are some specifically excluded services such as migration, unlawful services.

You must have a designated connection to the eligible product for your promotional activity expenses to be eligible.  For most businesses, the designated connection to a product will be that you own the product.   Other types of designated connection relationships may be appropriate depending on what the product is.

What Eligible Expenses can you get funding for

Eligible Expenses are those expenses incurred in respect of a promotional activities undertaken during the period of your grant agreement for the purpose of marketing eligible products in foreign countries and you have a designated connection to the eligible product (other than NZ), or training activities to develop skills in such marketing (Tier 1 only).

Eligible promotional activities include:

• Maintaining representative in foreign country.
• Short trips to foreign countries (maximum claim of 21 days per trip).
• Payments to consultants to research into the market in the foreign country for the eligible product; or undertake promotional activities to market the eligible product in the foreign country.
• Short trips in Australia in order to undertake activities that relate to marketing the eligible product to potential foreign buyers of the eligible product (maximum claim of 21 days per trip).
• Soliciting for business in a foreign country such as expenses to attend trade shows and events
• Seeking the granting, registration or extension of intellectual property rights of your eligible product in a foreign country. Such as payments to patent and trademark attorneys and to relevant government trademark and patent offices.
• Foreign Buyer Visits.
• Promotional and advertising material.

Excluded Expenses includes:

• Capital expenses
• Expenses to solicit sponsorship for an event
• Staff remuneration in respect of someone ordinarily employed in Australia by the business.
• Any sort of remuneration or remuneration-like expenses are not eligible expenses if they are made by reference to sales or other commercial transactions in relation to the eligible product such as salaries, retainers, fees, discounts, or credits.
• Grant writing expenses.

What are the Key Markets for Tier 3 Applicants

For Tier 3 applicants, your marketing and promotional activities must shift beyond your existing markets (economies), to additionally target one or more of the key markets (economies) listed below:

Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, Fiji, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam

The EMDG Round 4 Process

The process for receiving a grant will be as follows:

• You apply for a grant before you spend money on promotional activities. Note this grant is not a competitive grant.  You don’t need to “beat” other applicants, you just need to meet all the eligibility rules and spend the money for eligible purposes and apply before funding is allocated.
• Each application is assessed in the order it is received and the grant round for that particular tier will close when funding has been fully allocated.
• Austrade offers a grant agreement to each eligible applicant.
• You enter into a grant agreement with Austrade. You then undertake your promotional activities as agreed in the grant agreement.
• You request milestone payments in accordance with your grant agreement. This will involve you providing proof that the money was spend on eligible expenses.
• Your grant agreement will set out when your milestone payments should be made and what you need to do in order to receive these payments.

How to Apply for the EMDG Round 4

Click here to go to learn more about the EMDG Round 4 Program

Click here to apply.

Want Some help

If you are a NSW based business, I may be able to help you apply for the EMDG round 4 for free under the NSW Govt’s Business Connect Program

Contact Wayne on wayne@arealcfo.com.au or 0412 227 052.

Click on the below buttons to access free Resources developed by Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO to help your business scale and grow profitably

Want a confidential discussion on your business situation, help with your grant application or to learn more about my Outsourced CFO Services, simply email me at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call me on 0412 227 052