£11m of EU funding available for business support

Organisations across the Marches are being invited to apply for a share of more than £11 million of European funding for schemes which will provide support to businesses.
Applications are being invited for projects focused on research and innovation, business competitiveness, the low carbon economy and environment and resource efficiency.
The four themes have been identified as priorities for funding in the Marches European Structural and Investment Strategy.
This was developed by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership following consultation with stakeholders, partners, the business community and the voluntary and charitable sector.
The funding is part of the Marches LEP region’s total allocation of around £92m and the maximum available for each priority area in this round of funding are:

• SME Support and Competitiveness – £3.5 million
• Research and Innovation – £4 million
• Environment and Resource Efficiency – £1,725,490
• Low Carbon – £2 million

The deadline for each funding call is May 27 2016 and the minimum application amount is £500,000. Projects will be delivered between now and 2020.
LEP Director Gill Hamer said: “Whilst minimum application amounts are set at £500,000, collaborative bids are very much welcome which makes this funding truly accessible to a wide range of businesses and organisations and we anticipate that there’ll be a lot of interest.”
Full details of each funding call is available on the Tenders and Opportunities section of the Marches Growth Hub website, which contains links through to the full specification for each funding call.