eBusiness Programme Capital Grants
Businesses that have attended a workshop resulting in the production of an individual action plan may apply to receive Capital Grant funding.
Projects must demonstrate the grant will contribute to the growth of the business and forms part of the Workshop Action Plan.
Purpose of Grant:
To assist businesses with the purchase of new technology capital equipment – including ICT equipment and associated software.
To encourage businesses to commence and/or further develop trading online capabilities.
To assist business to increase productivity through the effective use of ICT.
Level of Grant Support:
50% of eligible costs
Maximum grant of £3,000
Minimum grant of £1,000 (must be a min of £2,000 spend by the SME)
Eligible businesses are restricted to one application to a maximum of £3,000 over a 12 months period from date of contract.
Note - All grant assistance is discretionary and subject to the limited funds available.
Eligible Costs:
Hardware
- Servers, Routers, Access Points, Firewalls, Hubs & Switches, UPS
- PC’s (including Macs), Notebooks, PDA’s
- Digital Camera’s , Camcorders, Web Cameras, Multimedia Projectors
- Printers, Plotters, Scanners
- Telecommunications (that link into a computer network), Smartphone’s.
Software
- Office Applications, Finance, Graphics & Media, CRM, Desktop Publishing, Web Authoring, - Payroll, EPOS, Operating Systems, OCR
- Programming / Database Development tools, Shopping Cart systems
Development
- Web development, Software Application development
Internet / Web Applications
- Email Marketing Applications, Online Survey Applications, Keyword Research Applications, SEO Analysis Software
Note – For grant eligible items being bought on a hire/lease agreement, applicants should note that only the deposit and up to 12 months repayments (subject to funding being available) will be eligible for grant funding.
Ineligible costs:
Costs will be ineligible if they have been committed to (i.e. order placed, deposit paid) or have been purchased/developed prior to an application being approved.
Examples of ineligible costs include:
• Costs not part of the identified project
• Statutorily required items e.g. fire alarms.
• Costs not contributing to the growth of the business.
• Like for Like equipment purchased in order to replace existing worn out items
• Training and Consultancy (including search engine optimisation)
• Installation / configuration of equipment
• Delivery costs
• Services such as: Adword campaigns, installations, delivery of training to use software
For further details about the capital grant programme please contact Rachael Baverstock on 0845 603 8370.