Other Grants, Loans and Schemes
A listing of other grants, loans and schemes available to businesses during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Arts Council Funding
Arts Council: Organisations Emergency Programme
Arts Council NI will be administering the Organisations Emergency Programme which will offer individual grants of up to £25,000 to small-medium sized organisations.
This scheme will open for applications on 1 June 2020.
Artists Emergency Programme
Arts Council NI opened their Artists Emergency programme for applications on Monday 27 April 2020. This is a rolling programme. The Artists Emergency Programme (AEP), worth £500,000, offers freelance artists, creative practitioners and performers the opportunity to apply for grants of up to £5,000 each.
Find out more
View Application Materials
Princes Trust Enterprise Relief Fund
The Princes Trust have unveiled an Enterprise Relief Fund for young entrepreneurs aged 18-30 who are self-employed or running their own business.
Grants can be used to maintain core business operations during the crisis, as well as meet any existing financial commitments, such as paying for essential equipment or settling invoices from suppliers. Additionally, grants will also support young people to diversify their business to respond to opportunities created by the crises. In conjunction with grants, the initiative will offer one-to-one support and guidance to any applicants who need it.
Find out more information
Salesforce and Enterprise Nation £5,000 Grants
As part of Salesforce’s commitment to small businesses and giving back to the community, Salesforce is partnering with Enterprise Nation to offer eligible small businesses the opportunity to receive a £5,000 grant to help them through the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Northern Ireland applications are currently open and close on 24 May 2020.
Find out more
Future Fund
The Future Fund scheme will issue loans to UK-based companies ranging from £125,000 to £5 million, subject to at least equal match funding from private investors. These convertible loans may be a suitable option for businesses that typically rely on equity investment and are unable to access other government business support programmes because they are either pre-revenue or pre-profit.
Eligibility:
Businesses are eligible if:
- It is UK-incorporated. If your business is part of a corporate group, only the parent company is eligible
- it has raised at least £250,000 in equity investment from third-party investors in the last 5 years
- none of its shares are traded on a regulated market, multilateral trading facility or other listing venue
- it was incorporated on or before 31 December 2019
- at least one of the following is true:
- half or more employees are UK-based
- half or more revenues are from UK sales
This fund is currently open.
Find out more information
Innovate UK Continuity Grants
Innovate UK has developed a range of options for supporting its existing customers with current projects through the impacts of the pandemic.
Up to £90 million is available in continuity grants, paid up front, to SMEs and third sector organisations who are existing Innovate UK award holders and who are at risk of abandoning their project due to a sudden shortage or even unavailability of funds directly related to COVID-19.
Find out more
IntertradeIreland Seedcorn Competition
The Seedcorn competition mirrors the real life investment process and can greatly improve your ability to attract investment for your business by helping you and your business become investor ready. The competition is aimed at early and new start companies that have a new equity funding requirement and has a total cash prize fund of €280,000.
Find out more
Deaf and Disabled Artist Support Fund
This fund has been created by Arts Council of Northern Ireland in response to the COVID-19 outbreak and is administered by University of Atypical. Artists of all disciplines are invited to apply for 25 grants of up to £1,000 each, in order to research and develop their practice.
Deadline to apply is Wednesday 20 May 2020.
Find out more
Federation of Small Businesses: Small Business Advertising Fund
FSB are giving small businesses the chance to receive a tailored advertising package worth £3000 courtesy of Mail Metro Media. The ad fund gives access to print advertising in Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, Metro and i. Online ads will also run across MailOnline and Metro.co.uk, offering further support to your campaign.
Find out more
Merck Open Innovation 2020 Research Grants
Merck are offering a series of research grants to stimulate innovative research in challenging areas of future importance.
Grants of €100,000 to €500,000 per year for up to three years are available in the areas of:
- drug discovery
- bioreactor design for cultured meat
- next generation machine learning
- pandemic preparedness / fighting new emerging viral infectious disease
Find out more
£5k Innovation Voucher
A call for applications is open from 4 May to 29 May 2020 at 3pm, for customers to avail of a £5,000 Innovation Voucher. This will allow businesses or potential entrepreneurs to work with a public sector knowledge provider e.g. SERC on an Innovation Project.
Applications are particularly welcome for projects that might help alleviate issues that businesses are facing as a result of COVID-19.
Find out more
IntertradeIreland COVID-19 Supports
Emergency Business Solutions
Professional advice, to the value of £2,000/€2,250 inc VAT (100% funded), is available for cross-border companies in manufacturing and tradable services, to address key business challenges related to Covid-19.
Find out more
E-Merge
The E-Merge programme provides £2500/€2800 fully funded consultancy support to help businesses develop online sales and eCommerce solutions.
Find out more
Open4Business Funding Search
The Open4Business portal provides businesses an opportunity to search a regularly updated directory of funding content. Businesses can search for funding specific to their industry and business size.
Access the portal
HSBC Fund for Internationally Trading Businesses
Businesses across the UK are facing supply chain disruption, with delays in receiving both goods and payments, leaving many with a gap in their working capital cycle.
To cover this short-term gap, HSBC are offering:
- £3bn lending to importers and exporters that need additional support*
- Pre-approved 60-day extensions on trade loans for customers with a sound trade loan/financing record**
- Fast turnaround on the issuance of Shipping Guarantees, enabling customers to transfer or receive goods from their counter-party faster
Call the dedicated helpline on 0800 783 1300 or click here to find out more
Business Led Innovation in Response to Disruption
The aim of this competition is to support UK businesses to focus on emerging or increasing needs of society and industries during and following the Covid-19 pandemic. By fast-tracking innovation, the UK will be better placed to maintain employment levels, a competitive position in global markets and make the UK more resilient to similar disruption.
Your application must demonstrate both realistic and significant benefits for society (including communities, families and individuals) or an industry that has been severely impacted and/or permanently disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £25,000 and £50,000.
Find out more information
Innovate UK Smarts Grants: January 2020
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £25 million in the best game-changing and commercially viable innovative or disruptive ideas. All proposals must be business focused.
Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy, such as but not exclusively:
- the arts, design and media
- creative industries
- science or engineering
Find out more
Innovate UK to Invest up to £20 million in Innovation Projects
Businesses could help boost the UK’s resilience to the long-term impact of the coronavirus outbreak and similar situations in the future, as a result of £20 million government funding announced.
Grants of up to £50,000 will be available to technology and research-focussed businesses to develop new ways of working and help build resilience in industries such as delivery services, food manufacturing, retail and transport, as well as support people at home in circumstances like those during the coronavirus outbreak.
Find out more information
Grants Online
Grants Online is a grant support resource which details both national and regional support programmes that are available to businesses.