Using AI to Find Grants: Helpful or Hopeless?

Grants

7 Sept

Authors: Shaun van Dijk, Siobhan Malone

As AI tools become more mainstream, many businesses are exploring ways to leverage them for research, strategy, and time-saving tasks. One area that seems like a perfect match is sifting through the plethora of government grants to efficiently identify those that are aligned with your business.

We ran a little experiment across three major AI platforms, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google’s Gemini, to assess how effective these tools can be to help identify currently open or upcoming grants. These AI platforms were chosen due to them being freely available, with no account or payment required, and thus more likely to by commonly used.

The goal was simple: determine whether widely available AI tools can help save time in the search for relevant funding opportunities for your Australian business.

The outcome was, in a word, mixed. Here's what we found.

The Experiment

Our approach involved asking each AI tool to provide details of open or upcoming Australian grants across three grant funding scenarios that are common to innovative businesses. The search scenarios that we assessed included:

Grant funding for female founded start-ups
Grant funding for QLD and NSW manufacturers undertaking sustainability projects
Grant funding for collaboration with Research Organisations

In each instance, the same grant searching prompt was used for each AI platform.

Our assessment process involved ensuring that the AI tool identified relevant programs and was accurate in summarising the important details about the program, in particular the eligibility requirements, on the first and only prompt. Our results are summarised below for each scenario.

Scenario 1: Female founded start-ups.

This scenario tests the ability of the selected AI tools to identify early life-cycle grants with specific eligibility criteria suited to female-founded start-ups.

The prompt provided was: ‘List currently open or upcoming grants in Australia that could apply to start-up companies that were founded by women, and provide key details for each.’

   
                AI Platform
                The Good
                The Bad
            
                ChatGPT
                
                    ✓ Identified 9 programs, including government grants and investment funds, 6 of which were relevant — 67%.
✓ Generally correct regarding program details, including target projects and key dates.
✓ Results split between government funding, non-government private funding and other support programs.

                    ✕ Some irrelevant programs identified, such as community initiatives rather than start-ups.
✕ Inaccurate dollar amounts and matched funding ratios.

                Gemini
                
                    ✓ Identified 8 programs, including government grants and specialised programs, 5 of which were relevant — 63%.
✓ Results split between federal, state and specialised programs.

                    ✕ Some irrelevant programs, not start-up aligned, were identified.
✕ Incorrect details often identified, including dates and grants identified as open when closed.
✕ Inaccurate dollar amounts and matched funding ratios.

                Copilot
                
                    ✓ Identified 8 programs, including government grants and other programs, 4 of which were relevant — 50%.

                    ✕ Some irrelevant programs, not start-up aligned, were identified.
✕ Irrelevant examples included community, sports and domestic violence related programs.

AI Platform	The Good	The Bad
ChatGPT	✓ Identified 9 programs, including government grants and investment funds, 6 of which were relevant — 67%. ✓ Generally correct regarding program details, including target projects and key dates. ✓ Results split between government funding, non-government private funding and other support programs.	✕ Some irrelevant programs identified, such as community initiatives rather than start-ups. ✕ Inaccurate dollar amounts and matched funding ratios.
Gemini	✓ Identified 8 programs, including government grants and specialised programs, 5 of which were relevant — 63%. ✓ Results split between federal, state and specialised programs.	✕ Some irrelevant programs, not start-up aligned, were identified. ✕ Incorrect details often identified, including dates and grants identified as open when closed. ✕ Inaccurate dollar amounts and matched funding ratios.
Copilot	✓ Identified 8 programs, including government grants and other programs, 4 of which were relevant — 50%.	✕ Some irrelevant programs, not start-up aligned, were identified. ✕ Irrelevant examples included community, sports and domestic violence related programs.

Other notes:

All AI tools were unable to provide reliable information on the Boosting Female Founders Initiative. The last completed Round was closed June 2022 and it is known that there will be no future rounds for this fund. However, each AI platform confidently stated that this program will return with a new round soon.
All AI tools provided instances of funding information with incorrect minimum and maximum grant funding amounts, for example, using a minimum from a few rounds ago, or identifying a maximum amount if certain conditions are met without mentioning any of these conditions.

Scenario 2: QLD and NSW manufacturers pursuing sustainability and low-carbon projects.

This scenario tests the ability to find grants for a specific industry in multiple defined locations for projects with a clear and specific objective.

The prompt provided was: ‘List currently open or upcoming grants in Australia that are suitable for Queensland and/or New South Wales based manufacturing companies wanting to undertake sustainability and low carbon projects, and provide key details for each.’.

    
                AI Platform
                The Good
                The Bad
            
                ChatGPT
                
                    ✓ Identified 10 funding programs, 7 of which were relevant — 70%.
✓ Results split between federal, NSW and QLD programs.

                    ✕ Missing grant funding details, only identifying the total grant pool.
✕ Incorrect details often identified, including grants identified as open when closed.

                Gemini
                
                    ✓ Identified 7 funding programs, all of which were relevant — 100%.

                    ✕ Incorrect details often identified, including grant rounds, co-contribution details and funds.

                Copilot
                
                    ✓ Identified 6 funding programs, all of which were relevant — 100%.

                    ✕ Missing grant funding details, key dates and other key grant details.

AI Platform	The Good	The Bad
ChatGPT	✓ Identified 10 funding programs, 7 of which were relevant — 70%. ✓ Results split between federal, NSW and QLD programs.	✕ Missing grant funding details, only identifying the total grant pool. ✕ Incorrect details often identified, including grants identified as open when closed.
Gemini	✓ Identified 7 funding programs, all of which were relevant — 100%.	✕ Incorrect details often identified, including grant rounds, co-contribution details and funds.
Copilot	✓ Identified 6 funding programs, all of which were relevant — 100%.	✕ Missing grant funding details, key dates and other key grant details.

Scenario 3: Companies wanting to undertake research focused, renewable and/or clean technology projects in collaboration with universities of research providers

This scenario tests the ability to find collaboration grants for specific projects, regardless of industry.

The prompt provided was: ‘List currently open or upcoming grants in Australia that are suitable for companies undertaking renewable and/or clean technology projects that are research focused and collaborate with universities or other research service providers, and provide key details for each.’.

    
                AI Platform
                The Good
                The Bad
            
                ChatGPT
                
                    ✓ Identified 6 funding programs, all of which were relevant — 100%.
✓ Generally correct information.

                    ✕ Only minor inaccuracies, such as stating a university partner would be needed where a research institution would suffice.

                Gemini
                
                    ✓ Identified 5 funding programs, 2 of which were relevant — 40%.

                    ✕ Incorrect eligibility requirements provided.

                Copilot
                
                    ✓ Identified 9 funding programs, 4 of which were relevant — 44%.

                    ✕ Incorrect details often identified, including dates, grant rounds and funding available.

AI Platform	The Good	The Bad
ChatGPT	✓ Identified 6 funding programs, all of which were relevant — 100%. ✓ Generally correct information.	✕ Only minor inaccuracies, such as stating a university partner would be needed where a research institution would suffice.
Gemini	✓ Identified 5 funding programs, 2 of which were relevant — 40%.	✕ Incorrect eligibility requirements provided.
Copilot	✓ Identified 9 funding programs, 4 of which were relevant — 44%.	✕ Incorrect details often identified, including dates, grant rounds and funding available.

In Summary‍

Overall, it is clear that AI tools are a great resource to help curate the grant programs potentially relevant to your business. They are also helpful for summarising program requirements and details of who the program is targeting.

However, as with other applications of AI, their limitations are also apparent. In terms of grant searching, we have seen that these tools:

commonly provide results missing key grant details (e.g. co-contribution ratio match, incorrect dates),
encounter difficulties distinguishing past grant rounds with current grant rounds or highlighting non-existent future rounds, and
often identify irrelevant opportunities outside of the bounds of the prompt and thus often unrelated to the grant type desired correct or relevant.

These limitations were observed across all prompts for all AI.

A caveat with this experiment is that when provided the exact same prompt, the AIs will provide different answers each time (e.g. listing or not listing different grant details). Additionally, varying or providing more in-depth prompting will almost certainly assist in yielding better results, though this takes time.

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What we recommend

We recommend using AI tools as a first step in your grant identification journey, but users must still:

Verify all information against official sources
Double-check deadlines, eligibility, and funding types
Recognise that grants not labelled for their industry may still apply.

If used as part of a grant searching methodology, businesses should combine AI outputs with trusted government portals and industry advice for the best results.

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Other Resources & Tips

There a range of other for online tools that can provide accurate and up-to-date information on available grant programs. These enable you to easily filter grants based on whether it is open, the target industry, type of support, and other key criteria. For example:

The Australian Government’s Grants and Programs Finder (no account required, free search)
State Government grant searching tools (also freely available), for example: Queensland Government Grants Finder, NSW Government Grants & Funding, Victorian Grants & programs | vic.gov.au
GrantGuru(account required, paid search)
The Grant Hub (account required, paid search)

Other tips include:‍ ‍

Follow the LinkedIn pages of government departments and other institutions that administer grant programs (e.g. Department of Industry Science & Resources, AusTrade, Advance Queensland, Innovation Victoria).
Subscribe to email updates for specific programs you are targeting.

Lastly, we regularly publish updates on new grant programs and upcoming deadlines which you can be alerted to by following theIntellect Labs' LinkedIn page. We also offer a range of grant services, including comprehensive funding pathway assessments to map relevant programs, rate your alignment and recommend steps to improve your chances of securing grant funding. ‍‍ ‍

Intellect Labs