Early stage commercialization in Oz

Don't ask me why, but it seems the National Angel Capital Association (NACO) has been blogging about Australia lately. Two things they recently blogged about are:

NACO President W. Daniel Mothersill speaking at Australian Angel Summit: Feb 17-19, 2010, NACO President W. Daniel Mothersill has been invited to make a presentation at the Australian Association of Angel Investors 2010 Conference in Adelaide.

Commercialization Australia is announced: While many have bemoaned the 2008 announcement that the Commercial Ready program was going to be shut down, the Australian government has announced a new program that "assists researchers, entrepreneurs and innovative companies to convert ideas into successful commercial ventures." Looks like they've got three levels of support:

1. Skills and Knowledge: Support of up to $50,000 for specialist advice and services to help commercialise an idea. Support of up to $200,000 over two years to engage experienced executives.
2. Proof of Concept: Grants from $50,000 to $250,000 to test the commercial viability of a new product, process or service.
3. Early Stage Commercialization: Repayable grants from $250,000 to $2 million to undertake activities that enable a new product, process or service to be taken to market.

Unfortunately I don't have the time to poke around and see what the terms and conditions are on the grants, but the fact that they explicitly mention the Early Stage Commercialization ones are repayable, suggests the other ones are not (or else they would have added "repayable" to their descriptions).