To receive a grant under the EMDG program, you must enter into a grant agreement. This is a legal agreement between a grant recipient and Austrade.
We offer grant agreements to eligible applicants. Offers continue until annual funding allocations are reached for each tier. Read more at How we assess applications.
Grant agreements will cover your eligible activities, reporting requirements and payment information. Agreements cover the term of your grant activity period.
There is an 8 financial-year limit for this program for small and medium (SME) enterprises. The 8 financial years need not be consecutive. From EMDG Round 4 grants onwards, the way we calculate the 8-year limit has changed.
For Round 4 grantees, calculations towards your 8 years are based on:
This includes all EMDG grants and grant agreements you may have received under EMDG at any time.
For example, a grant agreement covering 2 financial years would count as 2 years of EMDG. This is regardless of whether you reported nil activity or received no grant payment. It is 2 financial years even if only one grant payment was made in a financial year, or you were not paid at all.
There is also a financial limit to the funding you may receive over the 8 financial years. This needs to be considered alongside your financial years.
More details about how to calculate your limits are in your round’s guidelines.
You can check your grant history in the EMDG online portal.
Your grant agreement will state the:
Read sample grant agreements for each round.
We will email the primary contact on your application when your grant agreement is ready on the EMDG online portal for:
If you listed an agent on your application, they will get an email at the same time.
The EMDG online portal uses the Australian Government Digital Identity System to verify users. You will use your Digital Identity, myGovID, to access the service.
Where you used to see ‘Log in with myGovID’, you will now see ‘Continue with Digital Identity’. Once selected, you must then both:
To access the EMDG online portal, you need at least a standard myGovID. It must be linked to the business in Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM).
The instructions in the EMDG online portal will guide you on how to accept your grant agreement.
You must have an Australian SIM card to access myGovID overseas. If not, access is blocked for security purposes.
For technical issues:
You must sign your grant agreement within 21 days from the date of written offer. During this time, we will work with you to finalise the details.
The offer will lapse if you do not sign the grant agreement within this time.
An agent can’t sign the agreement on your behalf. Only the primary contact in your application can sign the agreement.
When you get your grant agreement, check all details are correct and up to date. This includes:
If there needs to be a change, send the request to EMDG.help@austrade.gov.au.
We will countersign and execute the grant agreement after we receive your signed grant agreement. We can only make payments after we do this.
Read the EMDG Guidelines for more information.
There are spending limits for some eligible expenditure categories. These include:
This will be set out in your grant agreement.
Each grant agreement will state the maximum grant amount per financial year.
We know there may be circumstances which can impact your grant agreement. Contact us to discuss your situation.
We may agree to vary your grant agreement.
Read about variations in the EMDG Guidelines.
A plan to market should be a living business management document. You can change and adapt it through the life of an exporting business. There are many types of eligible promotional expenses. Consider other options if your plans must change, e.g. travel.
If your plan to market changes, you will need to include details of these changes in your milestone report.
You will be eligible for a payment under the grant agreement, even if plans changed. You must show you still have an eligible product and meet the requirements of the tier. This includes the markets you are targeting.
We will adjust your grant payments if you don't spend as planned. We will work with you to adjust the amount and timing of your grant payments per financial year. For Tiers 1, 2 and 3, you will still need to meet the minimum capacity-to-spend requirements.
Notify us as soon as possible if you haven’t incurred any eligible expenses and don’t intend to.
There are 2 options you can choose in this case, depending on your circumstances.
You can ask to amend your grant agreement by removing the grant payment for the relevant period.
If your grant agreement:
You can withdraw your grant agreement and apply in future rounds if:
For Round 4, any grant agreement that you accept or enter will count towards your 8 financial year limit. This is regardless of whether you report nil activity or received no grant payment.
You can log in to the EMDG online portal and reject the grant agreement if we haven’t executed it.
You can also ask Austrade to terminate your grant agreement if we have already executed it. Do this by contacting EMDG.help@austrade.gov.au. We will let you know when we have updated our records.
Withdrawn or terminated grant agreements will count towards your 8 financial year limit. This includes the grant agreement's duration.
You must contact us if your situation has changed. This includes:
To contact us, call 13 28 78 or email EMDG.help@austrade.gov.au.
If your primary contact has changed, send us the:
The new primary contact will need to:
It is your responsibility to maintain the integrity of your business records. This is to ensure:
Read How to apply for more information about: