£10m Business Grants scheme opens in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly

4 August 2023

Earlier this week a new £10m grant scheme was launched for businesses in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (CIOS) with ‘growth ambitions’. This scheme is an allocation of the CIOS’s share of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Route to applications is through the Growth Hub

The route to application is through the CIOS Growth Hub. Initially contacting them to “discuss your ideas in more detail in a free business review”. They will:

Discuss your wider business opportunities and challenges to signpost you to any other support or training you may need
Look at resources to help you gather evidence, or benchmarking you can undertake, to show the need for the grant funding
Decide if grant funding looks right for you, and if so, pass you to their Grant Facilitator Team to help you to develop your project and apply for funding

What do we know about the scheme?

Criteria	Details
Grant size	£5,000 to £200,000
Grant intervention rate	Maximum 50%
Who can apply	Any trading business, sole trader, social enterprise, Community Interest Company or legally constituted organisation can apply for a grant.
Who can not apply	Start up businesses
Targeted at	Businesses in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly with growth ambitions
Projects sought	Those that contribute to the Good Growth Principles. And create a positive outcome for the local economic community such as: Create new jobs Safeguard existing jobs Increase productivity Introduce new products to the business Adopt new technologies or processes in the business Reduce Greenhouse gas (% decrease in Tonnes of Co2e)
Specific grants	There are specific grants focussing on: Manufacturing companies looking to adopt industrial digital technology solutions Businesses and organisations within the social economy including community businesses Businesses looking to grow their overseas trade Businesses and organisations looking to deliver feasibility studies for larger projects Businesses who need to carry out research or commercialise their ideas Businesses looking to develop new products and services Businesses wishing to develop digital and physical innovation infrastructure or access specialist resources
Launching first	Grants focussed on increasing productivity and supporting Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I)
Launching later in the summer	Grants to help businesses move towards Net Zero

Next steps

If you are interested to find out more about the scheme then check out the information on the Growth Hub webpage and make contact with them. Useful links below:

Webpage for scheme – https://www.ciosgrowthhub.com/
CIOS website – https://www.ciosgrowthhub.com/business-grants
CIOS contact page – https://www.ciosgrowthhub.com/tell-us-about-your-business

PKF Francis Clark

I anticipate several of our clients will be interested in the scheme and I will be working with others at PKF Francis Clark to disseminate information, starting with this post. I will also see what appetite the CIOS Growth Hub have for speaking at one of our breakfast events – watch this space.

In the interim if you wish to discuss with us any aspect of a potential project be it corporate structure or funding (match) or incentivising key staff please do not hesitate to contact me or your usual point of contact here at PKF Francis Clark.