Business Development

Organisations and charities that are supporting farmers, rural businesses and communities will be able to apply for grants of up to £50,000 from the 30th April 2018 onwards. Funding will be available for both capital and revenue costs. To be eligible to apply to the Princes Trust Countryside Fund projects must improve the prospects or viability for family farm businesses; to sustain rural communities and drive economic vibrancy. The closin...

Community Businesses in England are able to apply for grants of up to £300,000 to make their business more sustainable. Grants are available towards capital costs including building, vehicles, equipment of significant value, refurbishment costs as well as project-specific revenue costs like staff costs, professional fees, volunteer costs. The funding is being made available through the Power to Change Trust’s Community Business Fund. Pre...

The fourth application window for the Welsh Government’s Farm Business Grant (FBG), designed to improve the economic and environmental performance of agricultural holdings, is due to re-open for applications from the 30th April to the 29th June 2018. FBG funding aims to help farmers make their businesses more efficient, resilient and environmentally friendly by providing a contribution towards capital investments in items of equipment and ma...

Early stage Social Entrepreneurs in Hackney, Barking & Dagenham have until the 1st August 2018 to apply for support of up to £5,000 through the East End Connect scheme. This is a partnership of the charity UnLtd and UBS and will support 42 social entrepreneurs over the next three years. The support also includes with one-to-one support and specialist advice. There will also be some support for a small number of established social ventures t...

UK businesses working in the healthcare sector can apply to the Biomedical Catalyst for a share of up to £10 million to develop innovative products and processes to healthcare challenges. Projects should develop innovative healthcare products, technologies and processes. This could include projects that aim to prevent disease or manage chronic health conditions; detect or diagnose disease earlier; provide tailored treatments that change the u...

Visit Scotland has announced that it is now accepting expressions of interest from constituted groups of tourism businesses for the VisitScotland Growth Fund. The fund supports collaborative tourism marketing projects that focus on growth in the tourism sector and ensure that visitors experience the true Spirit of Scotland. It also helps businesses to build their digital capability and to market and measure their outputs and success more effec...

A grant programme that supports inspiring, locally-based, existing community-led businesses is due to re-open on 24th April 2018. Awarding grants of between £50,000 and £300,000, the programme aims to help community businesses such as shops, farms, community hubs, transport and energy schemes to progress towards self-sufficiency. Businesses supported will be locally rooted; accountable to the community; trading for the benefit of the local...

Lloyds Banking Group is inviting applications to its Social Entrepreneurs Programme. The Lloyds Bank Social Entrepreneurs Programme is a package of support to social enterprises that includes a learning programme, business mentoring and a grant. The programme is aimed at both start up social enterprises and existing social enterprises that want to trade up or scale up. The content of the course and the size of the grant award will vary depen...

The Scottish Funding Council has announced that the next deadline for applications under its Follow on Innovation Voucher Scheme is the 4th May 2018. 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 Education Ins...

Innovate UK has announced that it will run a second phase of its Women in Innovation awards. The programme, which will launch later this year, will consist of a funding competition and support package to encourage more female-led innovation. Alongside this, Innovate UK will start running quarterly innovation accelerator workshops to help get more women innovating in business nationwide. In the first phase which ran in September 2016, grants of...

A combination of business support as well as potential access to finance are available to social enterprises that improve access to employment for those excluded from the labour market. Designed to give social enterprises the chance to grow their business and deliver greater social impact, up to 20 ventures will be supported in 2018. The support is being made available through Unltd’s new social accelerator programme, Thrive. . Eligible a...

Key Fund, an investor in community and social enterprises, plans to invest £1m every month for the next five months through a combined loan and grant package to help finance new business ideas or existing business growth for the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector. Grants will be at the discretion of the Key Fund, but typically make up 10 percent of the loan taken. Applicants don't need assets or even necessarily experience, the...

Ambitious small producers and businesses with ideas for new food brands are invited to apply to take part in a summer school that will cover a wide spectrum of disciplines such as social media, marketing, raising finance and food photography. The aim is to help start-ups and small producers to grow and flourish by providing opportunities to share ideas and business challenges with a team of industry experts. Up to 12 businesses will be selecte...

Small and medium business within selected areas of the UK are able to get a grant of up to £3,000 to upgrade their business broadband to a Gigabit capable connection. The UK Government is testing a new Gigabit Voucher Scheme which will provide vouchers worth up to £3,000 to support the capital costs of getting new gigabit capable connections for businesses. In the Bristol and Bath & North East Somerset area, the Government are also making v...

Businesses also have the opportunity to apply for a share of a further £10 million for Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs). KTPs allow businesses to benefit from a partnership with an academic institution and a recent graduate with relevant expertise to work on a specific innovation project. The competition opens on 1 March 2018 and the deadline for applications is 9 May 2018.

Devon Community Foundation (DCF) is working with Enhance Social Enterprise (ESE) to support social enterprises and social entrepreneurs in Plymouth, Torbay, Devon and Somerset. The Devon Social Investment Fund aims to support the growth and impact of voluntary, community, and social enterprises (VCSEs) with accessible loans, working alongside enterprises to tailor loans to the needs of the organisation and helping to bring ideas to fruition. L...

UnLtd, the charity for Social Entrepreneurs has launched its new UnLtd Impact Fund. The fund aims to address one the key challenges for early stage social ventures: getting to access to capital. The Impact Fund will invest in around 35 social ventures over the next three-years. Initially, the UnLtd Impact Fund is looking to support social ventures tackling challenges related to training and employment - including school leavers and apprentices...

EventScotland, the national events agency which aims to strengthen and promote Scotland's events industry, has announced the National Events Programme round 38 is open to applications. The National Events Programme complements the International Funding Programme and is important in developing domestic tourism across Scotland. Through the programme funding is available to support events (outside of the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow) that show...

The Solway, Border and Eden LEADER programme has opened for applications. Leader is a European funding programme designed to support the development of the rural economy by providing grants to small businesses and communities. The programme will run from 2015-2020 with ££2.261 million available for projects in the Solway, Border and Eden LEADER area that are relevant to the main Leader priorities. This call for proposals is for investment i...

The next deadline to submit an Expression of Interest to the Worcestershire LEADER Programme 2014-2020 is the 13th April 2018. Micro or small enterprises, farmers, community groups and charities can apply for grants of between £2,500 and £50,000. Projects supported will need to address one of these themes. Development of micro and small enterprises; Development of agricultural and horticultural businesses; Development of forestry businesses...

Government grants are available to support organisations who would like to grow as a Public Service Mutual. These are organisations which have left the formal public sector but continue to deliver public services to create positive social impact, and have a significant degree of employee ownership, influence or control in the way the organisation is run. A total of £1.2 million will go towards creating new Mutuals and £500,000 used to pilot...

The next application deadline for the Forth Valley LEADER Programme is 24h April 2018. A European grant scheme with additional funding from the Scottish Government, LEADER is a bottom-up method of delivering support to communities and businesses for the development of rural areas. Successful applications from Community and Voluntary Organisations, Business Associations, Public Agencies and Businesses can apply for funding but will need to dem...