COVID-19 resource hub

Supporting Australian businesses and households impacted by COVID-19

The way Australians live, work, travel and socialise has been dramatically affected by the unprecedented and continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our nation’s energy resources sector is no different. Across the country and through the value chain, innovative small and medium businesses, sole traders and researchers have been severely affected. We recognise that many of you are experiencing first-hand the full impact of this pandemic, may be living in lockdown or have loved ones who are ill. And we expect impacts like these to continue for some time.

Since our inception in 2016, NERA's mission has and continues to be 'creating connections for growth'. Now more than ever this commitment to supporting our sector to communicate, collaborate and come together remains vitally important. In the midst of the business disruptions and uncertainty resulting from COVID-19, we are working to help our sector support itself and support our wider community as Australia navigate these challenging times.

To achieve this goal, NERA has compiled this information hub to:

  • Release our COVID-19 Innovation Challenge Funding Round to support our local energy resources innovators rapidly develop new solutions to the challenges we face as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
  • Support SMEs to build business resilience by sharing the range of support opportunities available to Australian SMEs, innovators, entrepreneurs and sole traders working in the energy resources sector.
  • Stay connected. Over the coming weeks you will see more online content being delivered through our channels, including webinars and virtual workshop initiatives. In addition, we'll be sharing more of our energy innovators' stories to keep you updated about what our energy ecosystem is achieving across the nation and how some SMEs are responding to the current situation by, for example, adapting their offerings, returning to previously ‘shelved’ ideas, or rethinking their business models.

NERA joins fellow Growth Centres AMGC (Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre), AustCyber and MTP Connect in developing opportunities to assist our sectors at this time.

The Australian Government has announced social distancing measures and restrictions on a number of non-essential services. For more information, see below.

From Adversity to Advantage: a recipe for building a resilient business

As part of our COVID-19 response initiatives, we released a series of five informative webinars that explored business resilience and provided practical steps, examples and strategies for SMEs.

This 5-part webinar series was zoomed weekly Thursday 30 April to Thursday 28 May.

Click here for more information.

The Australian Technology Catalogue

Many of our innovative suppliers rely on international exhibitions, conferences and trade shows to promote their technology solutions. With these opportunities cancelled or postponed this year, the Australian Technology Catalogue portal is an invaluable virtual platform for Australian suppliers to showcase and prove their technology solutions, raise exposure, improve their business resilience and connect with end-users to rapidly deploy their technology.

NERA encourages all SMEs with innovative technology to feature their solutions on the catalogue today.

Click here to enter the portal and share your technology.

COVID-19 Innovation Challenge Funding Round projects announced

NERA has committed $227,500 to assist ten Australian energy innovators fast track tech and deliver solutions to combat COVID-19. With funding support already fast tracked to each company, these ten Australian innovators are already rapidly deploying their technologies across the country.

Find out more about the energy innovation projects here.

Federal and State business assistance measures

Essential Services

The Australian Government has announced social distancing measures to protect the Australian community from the spread of COVID-19. Restrictions have been placed on a number of non-essential services.

More information on these measures can be found on the business.gov.au website here.

Any business that is listed — unless it has an exemption — is prohibited from operating because it is considered to create a risk of transmission and for the time being is considered as a non-essential service.

A detailed media statement from the Prime Minister’s office is found here.

The Australian Government has announced measures to support small businesses impacted by the COVID-19, including stimulus packages to help protect communities and jobs over the next six months.

Useful links and contacts

Visit these locations for specific information on how to apply:


Jobs Hub

The Morrison Government has launched a new Jobs Hub, supporting businesses and those Australians looking for work. The Jobs Hub helps Australians looking for work find advertised vacancies. Visit the hub here.


State Government assistance packages

In addition to the federal government assistance packages, individual states and territories also have their own support packages available: NSW, Qld, SA, WA, Tas, Vic, ACT and NT. We encourage you to check your state government Energy and Mining department website for any additional information about what is happening specifically in your state sectors.

More information on State and territory grants and assistance can be found here.


Supporting businesses in the current climate

The Australian Information Industry Association, in conjunction with some of its members and with support from the Federal Government, has come together to provide a suite of free service offerings, advice and tools to support Australian business continuity through use of technology. Support includes a range of remote communications, collaboration, workforce management and video conferencing solutions for business continuity that can be accessed on any device at any time.

For more information, click here.


For information on COVID-19