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.
Grants available to Scottish businesses
- SMART: SCOTLAND
- Workplace Innovation Grant
- IBioIC Facilities Access Fund
- Innovate UK
- Scottish Growth Scheme
- Scottish Enterprise R&D Grant
- Scottish Venture Capital Fund
- Open Fund: Sustaining Creative Development
- Scottish Edge
- Forestry Grant Scheme
- International Events Funding Programme
- Culture & Business Scotland Fund
- Regional Grants
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. It is an R&D grant aimed at high-risk, highly ambitious projects.
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. However, the team is till offering free advice and consultancy.
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.
It also has a ‘Spin Out Support Programme‘ that offers up to £20,000 for projects focusing on innovative applications of biotechnology. The projects must be led by at least one of Scotland’s talented Higher Education Institutes (HEI).
You can contact them through their website.
Innovate UK Grants
Who can apply?
Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency and is part of 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 £250,000
- 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 £100,000 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 supports organisations to deliver a wide range of creative activities covering: specific one-off projects, a period of creative research and development, or a longer term programme of work. It can also support organisations to undertake business and organisational development that will enhance their business sustainability through the development of new or more diverse income streams
- The fund is open all year round, with no deadlines and can support activity for up to 12 months
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 between £10,000 and £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.
International Events Funding Programme from EventScotland
Funding to support events which drive international tourism and media profile for Scotland. These events can take place anywhere in Scotland so long as they are targeting visitors from outside Scotland and across the world.
Potential applicants must submit a funding enquiry before submitting a funding application. A member of the EventScotland team will share further details on the application process after review of an enquiry.
Culture & Business Scotland Fund
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.
Regional Grants
NESTRANS Community Project Grant Fund
Who can apply?
The grant is open to community organisations and social enterprises who want to fund small projects which support people to increase their use of active and/or sustainable transport modes.
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.
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.
HIE’s Young Business Capital Grant Fund
This grant aims to stimulate an increase in productivity, innovation and employment in the Highlands and Islands through capital investment in start-up/young businesses and social enterprises who have been trading for less than five years.
The funding is a non-repayable grant of up to £75,000 which will cover between 20% and 50% of the total cost of a project. The minimum grant award is £10,000. It prioritises projects based in remote, rural and island areas, and can be used towards capital investments involving the development of premises, new technology, and capital equipment (e.g. manufacturing equipment, machinery, tools etc.)
Business Gateway Fife
Managed under the umbrella of ‘InvestFife’, the Business Gateway team offer two funding channels:
1. Fife Investment Fund
Financial support to Fife-based businesses looking to invest in and grow their business or progress towards Net Zero. It is a fully repayable grant of up to £10,000 or 70% of the overall costs of the project being undertaken (whichever is lower).
2. SME Development Grant
Small non-repayable grants to assist with costs across the following seven themes: Trade Development, Workforce Upskilling, Transition to Net Zero, R&D Innovation, Agriculture Business Diversification, Support for Studies, Digital Development.
Perth & Kinross Council grants
There are three grant funds of interest to local businesses:
1. Green Capital Development Grant
Grants are on offer up to £25,000 – covering up to 50% of eligible costs. Projects must be of a minimum £10,000 (this equates to a minimum £5,000 match from the business). They are available for CapEx and can be used to acquire, upgrade, and maintain physical assets such as property, plants, buildings, technology, or equipment (excluding vehicles).
2. Beyond Scotland Market Development Grant
For businesses wishing to expand their market overseas or into other parts of the UK (excluding Scotland). Grants of up to £3,000 covering up to 50% of eligible costs are available.
3. Adapt Your Property Fund
A grant to assist business and property owners to upgrade and repurpose vacant commercial properties in order to bring them back into use as commercial, community or residential premises to help implement sustainable economic growth. Property owners or tenants can apply for grant assistance of up to 50% of the cost of the project to a maximum grant award of £75,000.
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.
Orkney Islands Grants
The Orkney Islands Council Economic Development and Business Gateway teams manage a programme of grant support schemes which together aim to support Orkney businesses to increase employment and strengthen the Orkney Economy. The following grants are available:
Orkney Islands New Business Start Up Grant
A discretionary grant is open to applications from new small businesses located in Orkney, which have been trading for less than 6 months and are employing less than 50 people. The grant funding level has a maximum level of £1,500 and a minimum value of £500.
Flexible Business Development Grants
These grants focus on supporting investments in business growth, increasing competitiveness, and the survival of businesses. The maximum FBDG grant available is £5,000. Applications are particularly encouraged from the following sectors: Tourism, Food and Drink, Low carbon and Renewable Energy Technology, Manufacturing Creative industries, Community-based Social Enterprises.
The Economic Development Grant Scheme
Support of up to £55,000 at a rate of up to 30% of costs, towards capital expenditure. A minimum £10,000 of eligible project cost applies to these grants. It is targeted towards supporting: projects which encourage economic diversification; activities which raise the average wage rate; efforts to overcome barriers to exporting
Other Community Funds
There are also three more funds focused on community and voluntary organisations, including one tied to the OIC Crown Estate Community.
Shetland Islands Grants
The Shetland Islands Council has the following business grants available:
Economic Development Grant Scheme
Sole traders, partnerships, limited liability partnerships and limited companies can apply for grant
funding to start up or grow businesses in Shetland. This scheme offers a discretionary grant of up to 50% of eligible costs, with a minimum grant level of £1,000 up to a maximum grant of £25,000.
Shetland Business Start Up Grant
The grant is administered by the Business Gateway Shetland team and is open to applications from new small businesses located in Shetland. Businesses established up to 12 months prior to the application date will be eligible to apply for assistance. A grant of £500-£4,000 can be awarded to successful applicants.
Shetland Rural Retail Services Scheme
The purpose of the Scheme is to improve the facilities and amenities of local shops and ensure they continue to provide a vital local retail service to their community. Grants range between £1,000 and £10,000 for eligible businesses to invest in adaptations, improvements and new ways of working.
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