Grants are being made available to Somerset SME businesses (small and medium size businesses of up to 250 employees) to support the growth of eligible organisations to help drive economic recovery post-COVID and support Somerset’s ambition to become net zero by 2030.
Applicants can apply for grants of between £25,000 and £50,000, with the applicant expected to match fund 25% of the project costs.
A few grants will be made available in the region of £100,000 for exceptional cases where the applicant can demonstrate the activity will be transformative and act as catalyst for growth, with the applicant expected to match fund 50% of the project.
The funding scheme has the following key themes:
To be eligible applicants must:
For grants between £25k – £50k there will be a two-stage process – an expression of interest, including basic organisation details and an overview of proposed project activity, costs and timescales to confirm eligibility. This will be followed by the full application and supporting evidence – including detailed project activity, milestones, outputs and expected expenditure.
For grants in the region of £100k there will be a third stage to include a discussion and/or presentation of a project plan to a board of relevant stakeholders who will recommend and advise on the project activity.
Applicants applying for grants in the region of £100k grants are advised to contact acceleratorfund@somerset.gov.uk in the first instance to arrange a discussion of their project plan.
The call for Expression of Interests (online form) will be open from now until Monday, April 11, after which point the applications will be assessed and successful applicants invited to submit a full application within six weeks.
The number of grants available under this scheme is limited, so the grant assessment process is competitive.
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