Grant Funding for North East Businesses

For growing businesses, there’s a lot to juggle. Not least finding the cash to pay for everything you need to do to scale. 

But there is help out there in the form of grant funding to support your business growth.

These grants can help cover the costs of outsourcing expertise in areas like marketing, website development, and branding (and much more like HR, finance strategy etc.). 

We’ve supported many of our clients to successfully apply for grant funding for our projects together, so we thought we’d create a central resource on some of the most recent funding pots and how you can apply.

What are business growth grants?

Grants are essentially cash injections that you don’t need to repay. Many grants only pay for part of the cost of a project, so you do usually need to have some cash set aside to part-fund your project in order to be eligible.

Business grants are often awarded based on applications, making them more competitive. However, this presents a great opportunity for your business to demonstrate what makes you stand out from the crowd.

What can you use grant funding for?

Grant funding can help you invest in new growth projects sooner than you’d be able to without it by reducing your short-term cash burden. To name a few examples, grant funding could allow your business to:

• Diversify by pursuing a higher-risk activity, which could increase profits.
• Get agency support to create a marketing strategy for your next phase of business growth.
• Collaborate with web developers to redesign your website.
• Improve your workforce by up-skilling employees.
• Access other sources of finance.

… and more!

What grants are available?

North East Business Grants

There are some fantastic opportunities for eligible North East businesses to access funding right now. The Sunderland Business Support Fund, the North of Tyne Business Support Fund and the North of Tyne Investment Grants all offer funding for innovative projects.

North of the Tyne Investment Grants

Organised by Creative UK, the North of the Tyne Investment Grants offer grants of up to £8,000 to support freelancers and SMEs in the culture and creative sectors.

The eligibility criteria for this grant includes:

• Location: SMEs and freelancers based in Newcastle, North Tyneside or Northumberland.
• Industry: This grant is for individuals in the cultural and creative industries.
• Activities: These grants support businesses to enable long-term sustainability and/or growth. Activities might include diversification, new partnerships, up-skilling, and bringing in short-term expertise.

Creative UK require a minimum of 50% cash match funding for each grant award (so an £8,000 grant would go towards a £16,000 project) to encourage businesses to see the grant as a stepping stone towards becoming self-reliant. 

Applications close September 2024, with decisions made every 6 weeks. The North of Tyne Cultural and Creative Investment programme will run until March 2025, which means funded projects must be completed by the end of December 2024.

Sunderland Business Support Fund

Funded by the UK Government and organised by NBSL, the Sunderland Business Support Fund offers grants to support up to 40% of funding for projects that cost between £3000 – £6000.

The eligibility criteria for this grant includes:

• Location: Businesses must be based in the Sunderland City Council catchment area.
• Industry: Private businesses, social enterprises and third sector organisations are eligible for this grant.
• Activities: The grant can fund external expertise to improve your business. This can include activities to increase sales (e.g. marketing strategy and web development), reduce costs, and plan for the future.

The North of Tyne Business Support Fund

The North of Tyne Business Support Fund is similar to the Sunderland Business Support Fund. Both grants are organised by NBSL and funded by the UK Government.

The key differences between the two grants are:

• Location: For the North of Tyne Business Support Fund, businesses must be located in Newcastle, North Tyneside or Northumberland.
• Available Funding: This grant covers up to 50% of eligible business spend and grants are available to projects that cost between £3000 and £8000.

Although no specific application deadline has been published, both funds are supported by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which will provide £2.6bn of funding for local investment by March 2025. 

If your business meets the eligibility criteria and you think that funding would help you reach your goals, don’t hesitate to start your application today.

Innovate UK

Innovate UK supports businesses across the UK through the development and commercialisation of new products and services. Having funded over £1161m, Innovate UK helps businesses to grow with various funding opportunities across a number of industries.

Many different funding opportunities are available from Innovate UK, with varying eligibility criteria and competitive processes. 

If you’re doing something innovative in your sector, it’s worth spending some time researching what’s available from Innovate UK.

You can find the most recent funding opportunities on Innovate UK’s website.

Support for Funding Applications

A strong application can make a huge difference when applying for grant funding. Though application processes differ depending on what grant you’re applying for, it’s always important to have evidence to support your application.

For some funding opportunities, we can assist with putting together a project scope or proposal to include in your application. 

Proposals outline how you will use the funding and the impact funding would have on your business. Working with your business, we would outline how the money would be spent to reach your goals.

Let’s Chat Funding

If you’ve received funding or need a hand putting together a proposal, feel free to get in touch and find out all the ways we can help you.