The success of the Dunedin City Council economic development unit's industry project funding could mean a substantial increase in the fund in the future, economic development manager Peter Harris said.
The unit was co-funding four industry projects in the April round to help boost collaboration between businesses.
The $154,000 would be divided between four projects.
The initiatives were a domestic tourism campaign, marketing Dunedin to potential international students in China, raw materials purchasing for engineering and improving the business of software development and sales.
The total value of the projects was nearly $408,000, Mr Harris said.
Business development adviser Des Adamson said selecting the applications to fund was not easy for councillors but he was pleased with the result.
"We received eight applications, asking for more than $400,000, so it was difficult for councillors.
"Giving priority to those projects within the available budget was always going to be challenging.
"However, good projects will get backing and those that can't be funded this time can work on improving their applications and apply again in future."
Mr Harris said the draft annual plan for next year, if approved by councillors, would see an increase of more than $460,000 in the funding for industry projects which would take the total fund to more than $660,000.
It was planned to have three rounds of funding, instead of the present two.
The next round closed on June 23 and it was time for people to start thinking about potential collaborations.
The fund required three or more organisations to work together and for the industry to commit at least one-third of the project funding.
Farra Engineering chief executive John Whitaker is part of the engineering group which successfully applied for funding to help local engineers create a buying group so they can source raw materials directly.
"The fund sends a positive signal to business in Dunedin.
"In challenging times we need to work together and this fund has helped prompt us to do that."
Mr Harris said that in the past there had been some disquiet about different parts of the local economy receiving more money than others.
The economic development unit had to work out how to allocate money fairly to different industries.
Because education was such a large part of the local economy, an argument could have been made for education to receive a larger share of industry project funding.
But because information, communications technology (ICT) was an industry of the future, some balance had to be found between sunrise and established industries, he said.
In the past, each of the economic advisers had about $10,000 to help industries in the sector in which they were involved.
Mr Harris decided to pool the money and set up the contestable industry fund which amounted to about $90,000.
Economic development chairman John Bezett proposed expanding the fund by $150,000, something to which the other councillors agreed.
That took the fund to the current $240,000.
The benefit of the industry funding project was that local businesses collaborated on ways of promoting what they did.
Councillors also became aware of industry developments through the workshops held to decide on the funding.
"In the end, it is the councillors who make the decisions on who gets the money."
Although there would be some disappointment from those whose projects failed to secure funding, Mr Harris believed that a well-researched project would succeed eventually, as the promoters found different ways to push it through.
Successful applicants
EDU April funding round. -
• Flat sheet metal and fastening materials, $36,000: Steel procurement project to get new supply of raw materials that allows three Dunedin engineering companies to be more competitive when they bid for new contracts or approach new markets.
• Love Dunedin, $80,000: Domestic tourism marketing campaign. Phase one aimed locally at Dunedin residents and then those within a four-hour drive. Residents familiar with city but need to get them into participating in product and getting love, pride and new passion for Dunedin.
• International student market, $19,000: Marketing visit to Hong Kong, China, Thailand and Germany to recruit international students.
• Lean manufacturing for the ICT sector, $19,000: Help information, communication and technology become more lean and agile through exposure to the latest advances in software development, methods and tools by providing coaching and mentoring to assure successful process improvement results.
