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If your business is based in Scotland, you’ll interested to learn there are Scottish business grants that you may be able to access.
Grants are a type of funding provided by the government, local councils and some private organisations.
You don’t normally have to repay them. But you might have to meet some terms, for example a job creation target or deadline.
Grants are usually available to help ideas or businesses that will create jobs or develop new products, services or markets.
Grants are there to help you fund a specific project and will usually cover only part of the total costs involved, so you will need to provide match funding in most cases.
Furthermore, most grants are paid retrospectively which means that you’ll need to pay out money upfront and reclaim the grant money later.
Every grant will have a different application process, although there will be common things you’ll need to show, like how the grant will cover shortfall in funding and what other efforts you’ve made to raise funding.
The main grant funding available in Scotland is to help ideas or businesses that:
- Will create social or economic benefits, for example job creation
- Want to create collaborative projects leading to new technology or ideas
- Are involved in research and development
Listed below are a few key resources where you’ll find multiple sources of funding and small business grants for Scotland.
Better Business Finance: A portal that provides impartial information and support to businesses and entrepreneurs looking to develop and grow. Use this search to find out exactly what grant funding is available to your business with a complete list of known grants in Scotland.
Scottish Enterprise: A non-departmental public body which encourages economic development, enterprise and innovation in Scotland. Scottish Enterprise’s funding model has recently changed. Most funding will be announced as funding calls – series of rounds that have fixed opening and closing dates. They’ll be aimed at helping businesses with specific projects. The following grant schemes are no longer taking applications: research and development, regional selective assistance, environmental aid. You can find funding opportunities on the Scottish Enterprise website.
Business Gateway: Offers advice and guidance to start-up companies and established companies across Scotland. See this page for specifics on grants and funding.
Scottish government: Search for business funding and advice.
Creative Scotland: Creative Scotland distributes funding from the arts, screen and creative industries from the Scottish government and the National Lottery. Find out about their different funding programmes.
Interface: All Scottish SMEs are eligible for funding streams provided through Interface. Your business will need an academic partner to apply. If you don’t have one, Interface can find one for you. Click here to find out more about their funding.
Zero Waste Scotland: Zero Waste Scotland has funding available to help move your business towards the circular economy and/or boost your recycling efforts.
Small Business Pro, our all-in-one solution, can save you time and money as well as offering peer support and the chance to win a monthly £2,500 grant. It will also help with the heavy lifting of managing customers, taking payments, insurance, finance and HR, plus you’ll get a host of personal wellbeing benefits.
You can find out more about Small Business Pro here.
Grants available to Scottish businesses
SMART: Scotland Grant
Who can apply?
Small and medium-sized businesses, university spin-outs or individuals that are based, or planning to be based in Scotland.
Criteria:
- SMART:Scotland grants an support feasibility studies that help to show your idea could work in the real world. Your project will need to generate intellectual property (IP) that your business will own
- Support is available at up to 70 per cent of the eligible project costs for small businesses and 60 for medium-sized businesses
- Projects must last between six and 18 months, and the maximum grant is £100,000
- Feasibility is paid with a third of the grant in an upfront instalment and the rest is quarterly in arrears
>See also: Intellectual property – how to protect yours as a start up or scale up
Workplace Innovation Grant
NB: The Workplace Innovation Grant is currently closed for applications. It’ll reopen in the new financial year.
Who can apply?
Scottish-based businesses who want to introduce innovative practices in their workplace
Criteria:
- The fund can contribute up to £5,000 towards activities that will allow a business to introduce new and innovative workplace practices. To get the grant, the project must fulfil at least two of the following three criteria:- People: To support motivating staff beyond pay. For example, recognising the benefits of diversity, reward and supporting learning and development
– Place: To support improving or maintaining a positive workplace culture, creatively use physical space to improve how employees work together, offer training associated with integrating technology which enables employees to share knowledge
– Practice: To support work practices to become fair, responsible and improve productivity. For example, flexible working practices, creating self-managed teams and a culture of leadership and coaching.
Specialist research and innovation grants available to UK businesses
IBioIC Facilities Access Fund
The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre’s (IBioIC) Facilities Access Fund will allow businesses to apply for grants of up to £10,000 to support critical research and development projects.
Projects must be led by an industrial partner and can cover a range of biotechnology applications such as biorefining, food and drink, biomanufacturing, waste management, textiles and agritech. The grants will enable companies to secure timely access to the facilities and expertise vital to expediting innovations.
Companies looking to access the fund are invited to get in touch with IBioIC to discuss their application in the first instance, before having their submission assessed on its economic contribution, technical viability and additional benefits for Scotland such as job creation or environmental impact.
You can contact them through their website.
Innovate UK Grant
Who can apply?
Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency and is part of the UK Research and Innovation. Grants are available to any UK-based business or research organisation
What can it be used for?:
- Research and develop (R&D) a process, product or service
- Test your innovation ideas
- Collaborate with other organisations
Scottish Growth Scheme
Who can apply?
The Scottish Growth Scheme is a package of financial support of up to £500m for Scottish businesses.
What can it be used for?
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Scotland can apply for:
- microfinance loans of up to £25,000
- debt or loan finance of up to £100,000
- equity finance of up to £2m
Scottish Enterprise R&D Grant
Who can apply?
Open to most Scottish-based businesses who can demonstrate that the proposed R&D project represents a ‘significant’ innovation, has serious commercial potential, and that have ‘the necessary management and technical expertise and resources, either in-house or brought-in, to make the project a success’. Non-eligible businesses are sole traders or charities. The minimum grant considered is £150,000. All companies that are awarded the funding must comply with the Scottish Government’s approach to ‘Fair Work’ and net zero.
What can it be used for?
Scottish Enterprise are looking for R&D projects that have a focus on economic transformation. In essence, these are projects that will help to:
- Create an internationally competitive energy transition industry in Scotland
- Scale Scotland’s innovation strengths into high-growth industries of the future
- Drive capital investment to deliver a step-change in Scotland’s productivity
Scottish Venture Capital Fund
Who can apply?
The Scottish Venture Fund invests in companies from start-ups, early-stage to expanding businesses seeking funding to develop products and/or markets.
What can it be used for?
This fund is for developing products and/or markets. It can invest alongside sophisticated private sector investors on equal terms, up to a maximum of 50 per cent of the total funding package on a commercial basis. This flexible equity gap fund invests alongside private sector investors, offering equity funding from £10,000 up to £2m.
Open Fund: Sustaining Creative Development
Who can apply?
The Open Fund is for individuals and organisations within the creative industries.
What can it be used for?
It has separate funding strands for individuals and organisations.
- Funding available for between £500 and £100,000
- The fund aims to enable individuals and organisations to explore ways of working that will help them to adapt and respond to the current changing circumstances
- The fund is open all year round, with no deadlines and can support activity for up to 12 months
NESTRANS Sustainable Travel Grant Scheme
Who can apply?
Applications can be made on behalf of:
- Any business or other organisation, including charities, not for profit and public sector agencies, based in or operating in Aberdeen or Aberdeenshire
- A specific workplace or section within such a business or other organisation
- Commercial or public service premises (not a private residence) currently attracting visitors or customers by car
What can it be used for?
NESTRANS supports development of travel plans in Aberdeen City and Shire. Applicants can bid for up to £10,000 in matched funding to support sustainable transport initiatives.
Scottish Edge
Who can apply?
Scottish EDGE is ‘a competition aimed at identifying and supporting Scotland’s up-and-coming, innovative, high-growth potential entrepreneurial talent’.
What can it be used for?
Winners can receive up to £100,000 in funding plus a business support package to help them make the most of any grant money.
The main categories within which awards are made are: Creative, Social Enterprise, Circular Economy and STV Growth Edge, which is open to consumer-based product businesses.
Forestry Grant Scheme
Who can apply?
Any size of business.
What can it be used for?
This scheme is focused on providing financial support for businesses involved in the creation of either new woodland spaces or the sustainable management of existing woodlands. It is managed by the Scottish Rural Payments and Services agency and Scottish Forestry.
HIE’s Innovation and R&D Grant
Who can apply?
Open to all businesses in the Highlands and Islands. The award of this funding is discretionary. Applicants will have to be able to demonstrate that they can match fund a significant part of the project, and also they must comply with HIE’s ‘fair work’ requirement.
What can it be used for?
This grant scheme is administered by the Highlands and Islands Enterprise agency, which is based in Inverness. The agency will consider grant support to projects where:
- Primary and secondary market research indicates a clear market need for the end product/process and a market beyond the Highlands and Islands.
- A route to market has been mapped out and there is a strong business case for investing in developing the product/process.
- A strategy for exploiting and protecting the intellectual property generated has been developed.
- You can quantify the impact the new product/process will have on your business and there is a clearly identified funding shortfall which cannot be met by the company or raised privately.
- It can be demonstrated that funding would result in benefits to the Highlands and Islands economy.
Culture & Business Fund Scotland
Who can apply?
Scottish social enterprises.
What can it be used for?
The CBFS is managed by Arts & Business Scotland, an independent charity. The fund offers pound for pound match funding for eligible projects of between £1,000 and £40,000 (excluding VAT) and is available across two tiers:
- Smaller funds of between £1,000 and £3,000
- Larger funds of over £3,000 and up to £40,000
Its aims are to encourage businesses to sponsor arts and heritage activity within Scotland while building new business sector partnerships over a minimum two to three-year commitment.
Fife Financial Support to Businesses
Who can apply?
Fife’s financial support covers businesses in the area looking to invest and grow.
What can it be used for?
The fund amount is up to 70 per cent or £10,000, whichever is the smaller cost. It’s fully repayable and must be paid back over an agreed period except for some small funds which are a mixture of repayable and straight grant funded support.
Funding is intended to be used for measures like product development and property improvements as well as training and market development.
Workforce Upskilling Grant
Who can apply?
Companies in Fife looking to improve the productivity and profitability of their business through staff training
What can it be used for?
This scheme will give you at grant of up to £2,000 if you’re looking to improve productivity and profitability through staff training. The Workforce Upskilling Grant can be a 100 per cent contribution – so if the total cost of the training is £2,000 or less, they’ll cover the full amount.
Orkney Islands New Business Start Up Grant
Who can apply?
Your company must be based in Orkney and employing fewer than 50 people in total. Applicants must be developing a new start-up business and build a full-time sustainable enterprise.
What can it be used for?
Orkney Islands Council fund the New Business Start Up Grant and can give you £500-£1,500.
The council is looking to target tourism, food and drink, renewable energy, lifeline local service providers and community-based social enterprise companies. Franchise businesses are also eligible.
West Dumbarton Business Start Up Grant
Who can apply?
This grant is for people in West Dunbartonshire to get up to £500 support.
What can it be used for?
Business start-up costs.
Flexible Workforce Development Fund
Who can apply?
Available to all of Scotland’s employers who pay to the UK government’s apprenticeship levy.
What can it be used for?
The Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) helps businesses continue to invest in their workforce.
Useful link: – Looking for funding? Find the right finance for your business here
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