UKSPF Herefordshire Research and Development Innovation Fund - Grants

31 August 2024

The UKSPF Herefordshire Research and Development Innovation Fund is a revenue grant scheme that has been funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The aim is to help Herefordshire businesses to:

• Increase productivity
• Access new markets
• Develop new products / processes and services leading to new employment opportunities and a more resilient and competitive business community

Grants of between £5000 and £24,999 are available to Herefordshire businesses to:

• Enable the procurement of external support and revenue items or activity to undertake research and development and innovation projects and
• Develop and adopt innovative new processes, products and services

The grant can contribute up to 80% of the eligible costs.

Projects must be able to demonstrate and evidence at least one of the outputs listed below by 31 March 2025:

• New or improved products or services provided
• New to the business technologies or processes adopted
• New jobs (employed directly by the business) created
• Jobs safeguarded
• Improved productivity

• Businesses physically trading and located in Herefordshire
• Businesses that have been actively trading for more than 6 months
• All sectors, excluding businesses involved in primary production (farmers)

• Businesses involved in primary production (farmers). Funding for this type of business is available from Defra Funding for farmers
• Start-up businesses (trading actively for less than six months)
• Public authorities
• Town and parish councils
• Voluntary groups
• Social enterprises that are not involved in economic activities
• Businesses where the majority of income comes from public sources due to subsidy control constraints
• Franchise businesses / national chains
• Non-economic activities
• Gambling / betting establishments
• Any business activity that is illegal or deemed unsuitable for public support by Herefordshire Council
• Businesses whose registered address is in Herefordshire but no trading activity is in Herefordshire

Revenue grant funding is available to pay for external costs such consultants / expert technical advice and other revenue costs. This can include but is not limited to:

• Specialist support for developing and testing new products or services including prototyping
• Support for acquiring and protecting intellectual property / trade marks
• External market research / market analysis
• Product launch
• Feasibility studies
• Designing of new software systems, App development
• Access to test bed facilities
• Clinical trials costs
• Attending trade events ( Department of Business and Trade approved events)
• Costs associated with the commercialisation of ideas
• Process improvements – designing and implementing new operation processes
• Data analysis projects

This list is not exhaustive.

• Capital items including equipment, purchase of land, buildings, vehicles
• Day to day running costs, for example consumables, stationary, employee salaries
• Stock items
• Training
• Corporate responsibility items - health and safety
• Items purchase through hire purchase agreements

Revenue grants are available for businesses, for up to 80% of the total eligible project costs.

• Minimum grant £5,000 - project costs must be at least £6250
• Maximum grant £24,999 - project costs must be at least £31,249 (a higher grant may be considered in exceptional circumstances)

This fund is now closed to new expressions of interest.

If you have submitted an Expression of Interest form, this will be reviewed and if your project meets the minimum requirement you will be invited to submit a full application with supporting papers.

The deadline for submitting the full applications for Round 1 is midnight 31 August 2024.

You will be required to submit (along with your full application form):

• Two or three quotes per item (one quote maybe considered in exceptional circumstances)
• Bank statement or other match funding evidence
• Previous two years' accounts (including profit and loss) where applicable

The earliest we will communicate decisions to applicants will be approximately 4-6 weeks after the application deadline date for the round you are applying in.

If your application is successful:

• You will need to accept the grant offer before placing an order / starting the project
• All projects must be practically and financially completed within 4 months of acceptance of the grant (if not earlier). No later than 28 February 2025.
• Grants are released on completion of the project. Stage payments may be considered on a case by case basis. All grants are released upon submission of a grant claim form, invoices and evidence that the costs have been paid and satisfactory progress has been achieved towards the activity detailed in your project action plan. The grant is not paid in advance and final stage payment will be released when the whole project is complete.
• You cannot pay for any grant costs with cash
• No work / or items to be ordered before grant offer letter received.

Please note: Items cannot be ordered or purchased before you receive a grant offer letter. If an order has been placed prior to acceptance of the grant offer the grant offer will be withdrawn.

If you would like to discuss your proposal before completing the form, please contact the Programme Team on 01432 260787 or 01432 260662 or via email RDI@herefordshire.gov.uk

 UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

UK Subsidy Control Regime

This grant scheme will be administered under Minimal Financial Assistance rules. Applicants must ensure that they are compliant with the UK subsidy control regime. You are asked to confirm this within the full application form.

For updates on other funding opportunities please visit the Marches Growth Hub website or contact the Herefordshire Growth Hub Team 01432 383343 or email business@herefordshire.gov.uk

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