Australian entrepreneurs whose projects could boost the nation's health are among those who have won funding to help turn their inventions into commercial reality.

Innovation Minister, Senator Kim Carr, today announced $10 million to support 23 inventions through the Commercialisation Australia program.

"We need more Australian inventions making it out of the laboratory and into the marketplace," Senator Carr said.

"The Australian Government is committed to backing Australian inventors who push the envelope and strive to create new and better products."

The inventions that were awarded funding include five health-related projects that could manage chronic stress, create drugs with fewer side effects, produce healthier foods, combat hearing loss and enhance micro-scale blood storage.

Sydney-based Ai-Media has been granted more than $1.7 million for technology that allows live speech to be streamed as text to iPads, tablets or laptops. This will help provide people who are deaf or hearing impaired access to employment and education opportunities.

Funding was also granted to an invention that could produce biological drugs to fight pain, cancer and inflammatory diseases in cats, dogs and horses.

The latest Commercialisation Australia grants also supported a Northern Territory invention that will increase the payload of road trains.

Seven information and communications technology (ICT) projects won support, including a mobile phone application that operates like a hotel key to open rooms.

Since its launch less than two years ago, Commercialisation Australia has assisted 177 innovators with funding of $71.7 million.

Details of the new inventions are available [PDF 68KB] [RTF 518KB].

More information about Commercialisation Australia is available from: www.commercialisationaustralia.gov.au or by phoning 13 22 56.

A printable version of the Media Release [PDF 53KB] is available.