New Rural Business Development Grant Scheme Opening on 4 May 2022
Would you like to recover, sustain or grow your rural based business?
The Rural Business Development Grant Scheme will provide investment support for the development of existing enterprises based in a rural area of Ards and North Down to sustain or grow through DAERA’s Tackling Rural Poverty & Social Isolation (TRPSI) Programme. Capital only grants are available up to a maximum grant of £4,999 available (up to 50% of the total costs of the project).
The scheme will open for applications on Wednesday 4 May 2022 and close at 12noon Tuesday 31 May 2022. Applications are submitted online and the system will not accept any applications submitted after the closing time.
A mandatory pre-application workshop will be taking place at 2pm on Tuesday 3 May. This workshop will be held over zoom. Only those businesses who attend a mandatory workshop will be able to apply to the scheme.
A copy of the guidance notes are attached and are available on www.ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk/business/rural-development (under Rural Business Development Grant Scheme section).
Please note the following pre-requisites:
- Your business must be located in a rural area (This excludes the towns of Bangor, Comber, Donaghadee, Holywood and Newtownards) & have less than 10 full time equivalent employees.
- You have not received funding under last year’s (2021) TRPSI Rural Business Development Grant Scheme (If you received funding from the Scheme in 2019 or 2020 then you are eligible to apply this year)
- The total cost of the capital project must be a minimum of £1,000 and must not exceed £20,000 of project costs.
- Procurement is to be included (minimum of two quotations for each item to be purchased)
- The project must not have started and the proposed works must be completed by 31 October 2022. It is anticipated that grant offers will be made late August / early September 2022, and your project cannot commence until you receive a formal offer of funding.
Please contact a member of the Rural Development Team on 07920187172 or email rdp@ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk. You can also contact Mark Christie for a one to one workshop at mark.christie@ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk.
