With the Commonwealth due to announce the successful bids moving through to Stage 2 of Round 24 of its Cooperative Research Centre program in the next few weeks, and Round 25 kicking off in late 2023, prospective CRCs should start thinking seriously about their operating structure.

There are various ways of approaching intellectual property and tax arrangements in a CRC, and those approaches in turn have implications for the winding up of the CRC company at the end of its funding term. A failure to consider these approaches carefully at the outset of establishing a CRC company may result in restrictions on IP access by partners – or an unexpected, and potentially significant, tax bill.

Click here for the main options for structuring a CRC and the key implications of each option on operations and winding up.

This article was written by Luke Dale, Partner and Nikki Macor Heath, Special Counsel.