Queensland Manufacturing AI Uplift Trial Program

The Queensland Manufacturing AI Uplift Trial Program is a partnership between the Queensland Government and ARM Hub's AI Adopt Centre. It moves manufacturers past awareness and experimentation into artificial intelligence (AI) that is built, deployed and measured. The program backs manufacturers that already have a clear AI use case and a way to deploy it.

Funded by the Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing and Regional and Rural Development and delivered through ARM Hub, the trial program will help Queensland manufacturers implement meaningful AI solutions in order to:

- Improve productivity

- Increase growth

- Enhance competitiveness

- Uplift workforce capability.

The Queensland Government covers 80 per cent of project value. The company contributes the remaining 20 per cent as cash, plus staff to work with ARM Hub on delivery. A Flagship Company does not receive cash. It receives ARM Hub services and a private workspace within an AI platform hosted on sovereign Australian cloud infrastructure, with access to a production-grade data foundation, AI engineering capability and ongoing operational support. A minimum of one Flagship Project will be allocated to regional Queensland.

The program runs in three stages:

- Expression of interest, assessed jointly by ARM Hub and the Department, with shortlisted applicants moving to Stage Two

- AI Roadmap, where participants work with ARM Hub to prioritise the use case, assess return on investment, run readiness diagnostics, test or demonstrate where useful and draft a project plan (this stage requires no matched funding but does require staff time)

- Flagship Project, a competitive process where successful applicants receive ARM Hub services to implement AI across the business.

Expected gains include improvements in quoting and compliance time, throughput and quality assurance, rework reduction, forecasting accuracy, predictive maintenance and workforce capability.

To be eligible, an applicant must meet all of the following requirements:

- Be a manufacturing entity whose principal activity and majority turnover comes from manufacturing, as defined under Division C of the ABS Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC)

- Employ between 5 and 500 full time equivalent (FTE) staff, with at least 50 per cent of total FTEs employed in Queensland

- For corporate groups, joint ventures or related entities, total FTE across the group must not exceed 500

- Be registered for GST and hold an active ABN

- Have a project site in Queensland

- Have an existing manufacturing presence in Queensland at the time of application

- Have operated in Queensland for at least two consecutive years before applying

- Demonstrate the financial capacity and standing to complete the proposed project

- Not be insolvent, and have no owners or directors who are undischarged bankrupts

- Not be a federal, state or local government entity, statutory authority, special purpose vehicle, charity, partnership or not-for-profit

- Not be receiving other local, state or federal government funding for the same project

- Agree to act as an exemplar Flagship Company.