DAERA Capital Grants for Rural – non-farm – businesses

  • Posted on 12th August 2020
  • /Under News

Two capital grant pilot schemes are being run at present.

The TRPSI Grant is being run though Fermanagh Omagh District Council. This scheme is being operated by other councils at different times.

The Rural Micro Business Growth Scheme is being run directly by DAERA and is province wide.

Outline points and links to grant websites are detailed below for each grant.

Both grants are for rural areas with towns above 5000 excluded. The list of towns excluded can be found here.

The maps showing the boundaries of Enniskillen, Omagh & Strabane for the grant purposes are linked to the town names in this sentence. The linked maps will take a minute to load up.

Only one of the grants can be applied for.

Grants are not retrospective. Funding will only be given for equipment purchased after grant approval is received. 

Please contact us if you need any further assistance with deciding whether to apply for these grants.

TRPSI Grant

Main Points:

  • Rural grant, so available everywhere within FODC council area except Enniskillen & Omagh towns.
  • Farmers are excluded from this grant.
  • Open for applications between 3rd August 2020 & 12noon on Fri 11 September 2020
  • For small businesses with less than 10 employees.
  • 50% grant with grant limited at £4,999.
  • Grant aided projects have to cost between £1,000 & £20,000.
  • Competition grant with scoring criteria in Section 3 of the guidance.
  • Examples of eligible items:
    • Computer hardware
    • Computer software – outright purchase, not annual licences
    • E-commerce websites
    • New equipment & machinery excl. motorised vehicles.
    • Alterations to buildings and additional signage required because of Covid-19

Rural Micro Business Growth Scheme

The link to the grant offer is  https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/articles/rural-micro-business-growth-scheme

Main Points:

  • Rural grant, is available everywhere within FODC council area except Enniskillen & Omagh towns.
  • The financial support is for investment in non-food and non-tourism related projects.
  • Expression of Interest forms should be submitted by 5.00pm on 31st August 2020
  • For small businesses with less than 10 employees or £1.8m annual turnover.
  • The minimum grant is £5,000.
  • Minimum spend not detailed but would have to be over £10,000 to get minimum 50% grant. No maximum spend but grant limited to £40,000.
  • Only £1.7m fund for whole of Northern Ireland, so grant would be expected to be extremely competitive. Attention will need paid to priorities in applications / expressions.
  • Eligible items are new machinery or equipment. But there is a large list on ineligible items at Section 5 of Scheme Information.