Business Development

The Scottish Funding Council has announced that the next deadline for applications under its Follow on Innovation Voucher Scheme is the 28th February 2020. The awards are specifically intended to encourage existing partnerships that have previously collaborated and jointly received funding. This can include the Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher awards scheme or any other funded activity. Businesses in partnership with Higher Educatio...

Disadvantaged and under-represented communities that want to develop successful community businesses by issuing community shares, can apply for development grants of up to £10,000 and equity investments of up to £100,000. The funding is available to both new and existing community businesses. The funding is however not suitable for newly formed community groups that are in the early stages of developing a community business proposal. The fun...

From the 13th January 2020 funding and support will be available to business start-ups who want to create a product or business using location or property data. Grants of up to £10,000 will be available alongside a range of support which includes access to mentors, workspace, product development support, marketing and PR support, professional and personal development and access to a range of open and proprietary datasets. The Geovation Accele...

The Music Export Growth Scheme, which supports small and medium-sized independent record labels and music management companies to introduce UK music overseas has re-opened for applications. Grants of between £5,000 and £50,000 are available to assist with marketing campaigns. To be eligible to apply, applicants must have annual turnover of €50m or less and no more than 249 employees. Applications must include detailed campaign proposals s...

The government has announced a new £1.5 million fund to support community pubs. The funding will help an estimated 100 new groups to take ownership of and save their local pub or support their essential community services based in pubs in rural and remote areas. The £1.15 million fund will support community pubs through two key programmes. £650,000 will be allocated to the More Than a Pub programme which provides small grants and speciali...

Boost It, a new programme from the Social Entrepreneurs Fund has opened for applications. Delivered by social enterprise agency Firstport and funded by the Scottish Government, Boost It will support social enterprises in Scotland to strengthen their businesses so they can successfully sustain trading. Boost It will offer awards between £30-50K in repayable grants to social enterprises responding to the climate emergency and environmental iss...

Community groups, charities, social enterprises or other charitable organisations looking to develop socially enterprising ideas and services to help people in Leeds with care and support needs to live independently in their own homes can apply for grants of up to £15,000. The funding is being made available through the Leeds Community Foundation Ideas that Change Lives programme. The programme also offers business guidance to successful ap...

A share of £5000 of funding is available for UK citizens over the age of 18 who are starting a new business in a rural area. To be eligible individuals must be able to demonstrate how the business will support rural communities, the countryside or rural sustainability. The Rural Start-up Fund has been made available by a partnership between Forest Holidays and The Prince’s Countryside Fund and the available funding will be awarded to one wi...

Food companies in the UK can apply for funding of up to £50,000 to offset the cost of sending surplus food to good causes and thereby helping people in need. The funding is part of the FareShare £3million Surplus with Purpose Fund and can be used to cover the additional staff costs needed for packing and sorting edible surplus food, or in building, implementing and managing new processes. It could also cover packaging and transportation cos...

The government has announced the launch of a new £10 million capacity fund to generate innovative proposals for new business-backed development corporations and similar delivery models. Local authorities individually or working in partnership can apply for up to £10 million over three years for proposals focus on housing and economic growth to regenerate their areas. Up to 10 proposals will be funded. To register an interest in applying f...

Funding is still available from the £3million Community Shares Booster programme which is being managed by Power to Change. This is an independent charitable trust that supports and develops community businesses in England. The programme provides existing community businesses that are either planning to make or have recently launched community shares offers with match funding of up to £100,000 in equity investment made on equal terms with o...

Businesses and Organisations in Scotland can apply for grants of up to £25,000 to encourage cycling as a healthy, sustainable and accessible way to commute. The funding is available for capital projects that encourage staff and visitors to travel by bike. The type of projects that can be supported includes the installation of secure and sheltered cycle parking; upgrades to shower, changing and drying facilities; the purchase of office pool bi...

A new government £16 million fund is now available to help businesses train staff in making customs declarations, and to help businesses who support others to trade goods to invest in IT. This is to ensure that trade with the EU continues as smoothly as possible after Brexit on 31 October 2019. Customs agents currently help businesses who trade outside the EU. This funding will help increase the capacity of the sector as businesses trading wi...

Applications are now open for UK businesses to apply for grants of up to £2,500 to attend international trade shows. The financial support is for UK SMEs to participate in overseas exhibitions and conferences that cover a range of sectors, from education to aerospace and creative to maritime. Successful businesses can use the grants to fund direct exhibiting costs, including stand costs and conference fees. The funding is being made available...

Rural and urbarn communities that wish to take over the ownership of their failing local pub can apply for loan and grant funding of up to £100,000 as well as business development support through the More than a Pub programme. This is the 2nd phase of the programme which supported 190 communities and saw 28 pubs open their doors under community ownership from 2016 to 2019. The programme is run by the Plunkett Foundation and supported by Power...

A new fund for Scotland has been announced that will enable social enterprises, charities and voluntary groups to deliver community projects that make a social impact while also contributing to the wider economy. Organisations will be able to access affordable and flexible loans of between £100,000 and £1.7 million from this £17million Fund. The loans take the form of ‘Patient Capital’, a repayable form of investment that can be used fo...

Social Enterprises, charities and community groups in Scotland that create jobs and protect the environment can now benefit from a new £17 million investment fund to expand and grow their activities. The Scottish Social Growth Fund will be open to new applications and it will provide affordable and flexible loans of between £100,000 and £1.7 million to charities and social enterprises. The fund will be delivered by Social Investment Scotla...

The City Bridge Trust (CBT) has relaunched its Stepping Stones Fund, an award-winning social-investment readiness grants programme delivered in partnership with UBS. Since its inception in 2014, the Stepping Stones Fund has distributed over £3m in grant funding to 77 organisations in Greater London who wish to test out ideas for trading, for property purchase and for redevelopment. The aim is to make organisations more robust, encouraging res...

Small and medium sized businesses in Scotland can apply for a share of £2 million to help them to prepare for Brexit. Grants of up to £4,000 are available to businesses employing up to 250 staff and can be used for activities including consultancy support, professional fees, external training, and international market research. The funding is being made available through Scottish Enterprise and applications can be submitted at any time.