@Parko5 the total cost is estimated as $4m, so the government commitment is 50% of the investment up to that limit.

I suspect the cost estimate has a healthy contingency, so the government has said, we’ll pay 50% of what it actually costs, but only to a maximum amount, because the government wants certainty on its commitment.

This scope probably can’t be managed as a lump sum fixed price. There will be contractors for the building and fit out, and then other suppliers for the specialist equipment, and maybe a mix of internal and external costs for installation and commissioning of equipment. The R&D Head will need to manage delivery of all the components to get the facility up and running out of their overall R&D budget.

So the level of detail makes perfect sense to me. That’s particularly because R&D facilities usually involve one-off, specialist elements, which can be hard to price, and so it’s better to take on the price risk as the owner/operator, rather than try to lay if off to a contractor. (I’m guessing here, but I do have first hand experience of starting up an R&D facility at the start of my career many moons ago, and some things have not changed!)