The grants, from the council's industry project fund, were handed over by Cr John Bezett, who said afterwards it remained to be seen what the true benefits would be of the latest grants and those that had been paid out previously.
"It will come up again in council, at annual plan time, so we will look at it at that stage, because we either carry on with this fund, or increase it, or we give it away.
"But, at this stage, the type of people, the type of projects that are coming forward lead me to believe that it will continue, because they are very exciting projects."
The biggest grant of $170,000 went to Ian Taylor and Animation Research as part of a $260,000 "sports analysis technology development" project.
Mr Taylor said his company was approached by the council to apply for the money. He described the grant as "a portion" of what the company was spending on a "whole new industry that revolves around sports analysis, television, multimedia, sports teams, training."
Mr Taylor said the company had the opportunity to work in Dubai on research and development with an International Cricket Council academy.
"We could go up there and do the development, but then it occurred to me that actually, why don't we do it back here."
Three health professionals were granted $30,000 to investigate ways to attract senior medical officers to Otago.
Otago District Health Board regional recruitment manager Pauline Latta said the money would be spent investigating the issues over recruitment and retention of senior medical officers. It would include finding out why they came to Otago and why they left.
The other grants were $19,350 to Bryan Morton, of Pierone, for a $29,475 feasibility study into the creation of a data storage centre in Dunedin; $64,125 to Warren Chambers, of the Otago Chamber of Commerce, for a $355,885 project designed to increase apprentice numbers in Dunedin and $105,000 to Steve Laubscher and Andrew Rooney, of Waste Solutions, towards a $160,000 project to manufacture a pilot anaerobic waste plant.
