Call for Expression of Interest - Rural business support grant and rural communities support grant

A simple expression of interest form can be completed online (which will be available until funds are allocated)

After you submit an Expression of Interest you will be contacted by our Inward Investment Team who will be able to advise you whether you should submit a full application. They will explain any issues around eligibility and can assist you with that application, if required. You will be asked to supply quotes (three quoted for costs over £5000) that you are seeking the grant for so you may wish to consider this now to avoid delays later in the process and to ensure that the expenditure underpinning your proposals is sufficiently well-developed to proceed. Grants will be assessed on a first come, first served basis.

What we can support

• Capital investments that meet the requirements of the scheme such as the purchase and installation of equipment, machinery, technology, or processes that facilitates growth, improves resilience, efficiency, productivity or creates jobs.

What we cannot support

• paying-off debts or refinancing
• the purchase of stock or land
• research and development costs
• financial investments
• salaries, travel, or subsistence
• training or accreditations
• ongoing normal revenue business costs and overheads
• costs associated with a statutory or legislative requirement for the organisation.
• other revenue costs such as marketing

Please note that we cannot retrospectively fund initiatives that have already been commissioned, paid for in full or in part or otherwise definitively initiated. Grant funding cannot be awarded as retrospective payment for goods or services procured before a formal offer of a grant has been received and accepted. Multiple grant applications from the same applicant cannot be considered. Our grants are discretionary and finite; not all applicants will be successful and may not be awarded the full 80% or 90% of eligible costs.