Innovation funding to boost business growth in North of Tyne
Funded through the North of Tyne Recovery Innovation Fund, this grant programme has been designed to drive economic growth by helping businesses to adopt new-to-business, innovative practices or bring new products or services to market.
The programme also aims to enable a green and sustainable recovery by funding projects that have potential to safeguard and create quality jobs, build a more inclusive economy and/or contribute towards the net zero agenda – applications are open to SMEs and Social Enterprises working in any sector based in Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland.
Funding deadline
This grant programme is due to end on the 30th of April 2023. If your application is approved and you are offered a funding contract, you must be able to complete your project, pay your supplier/provider in full and claim your grant before this date.
Funding offer
The Innovation Recovery Grant covers 50% of eligible business spend towards Innovation Projects and can be used in a variety of ways including:
- Equipment – projects can now start at £5,000 (ex VAT) or:
- External Expertise – Innovation projects can now start at £8,000 (ex VAT)
Grants of between £2,500 and £10,000 are available – for more information on the type of projects we could support, click here.
Business eligibility
Your business should be eligible for funding if it’s a trading SME based in the North of Tyne area.
Project eligibility
Your project needs to be innovative. That means it’s changing something for the better in your business – it could be a new product, an improved service, or a new way of working, but it needs to be something you’ve never done before. We’ll need details of your innovation project so be sure to be prepared before you apply so that we can process your application as quickly as possible!
Funding process
Accessing the North of Tyne Innovation Recovery Grant is very straightforward – you could have a decision on your grant application within a few weeks.
Apply for a grant
We’ll need to know some details about your business, the project you’d like to fund with a North of Tyne Innovation Recovery Grant and how it will help.
What is innovation?
We know that innovation means something different to everyone, but we also know that most businesses are being innovative without even knowing it. Innovation means anything that is new to a company that helps it to increase productivity, performance, or efficiency.
We’re looking for innovations that produce a tangible result to your business or the wider community. This could be with a new technology to increase productivity, the digitisation or automation of business processes, or bringing a new innovative product to market. So, if you’re looking at the future for your business and think grant funding can make an impact, apply now before it’s too late.