The Victorian Government has announced the launch of round two of the $11 million Digital Futures Fund, which is aimed at driving productivity growth through the innovative use of information and communication technology.

State Technology Minister, Gordon Rich-Phillips, has called on the state’s small to medium enterprises to submit expressions of interest for collaborative projects that use ICT to address key business challenges.

“The fund was set up to help find solutions to barriers that are commonly faced by small to medium enterprises in business,” Mr Rich-Phillips said.

Examples include projects that consider how to improve the quality of a non-ICT business product; reduce the time, labor or quantity of raw materials required to produce a product; create new ways of working; or improve the speed and quality of service delivery.

Projects must involve a minimum of three partner organisations, two of which must be Victorian SMEs facing a shared business challenge. Successful projects will receive funding of up to $500,000 and may run for up to two years.

Mr Rich-Phillips said applications were welcome from all industries involving partnerships between private and public sector organisations such as industry bodies and associations, community organisations, universities, TAFEs and public research and development organisations.

Applications for this round close at 2pm on Wednesday 7 March 2013. Successful projects from Round 1 of the Digital Futures Fund will be announced in early 2013.

For more information visit www.business.vic.gov.au/dff