What is the the Smart Concept Fund Wolverhampton?
The Smart Concept Fund offers Proof of Concept (PoC) grant funding designed to support the commercialisation of new technologies. The Fund can award successful applicants a grant of up to £16,500 at an intervention rate of up to 55% to help fund an approved product development project, subject to eligibility conditions. The Fund is open to applications and closure expected early 2023. It is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), so to be eligible for support your business must be based within one of the three sponsoring LEP areas (Black Country, The Marches or Stoke on Trent and Staffs) and qualify as an SME (detailed conditions apply, but in summary the company must have independent ownership, have fewer than 250 employees and an annual turnover of less than €50 million).
Benefits of the fund?
- There are many benefits of working with the Smart Concept Fund project. The biggest benefit SME’s find is the financial support. Businesses have fantastic innovative ideas; however, due to resource limitations for development work, the progress is often slow or discontinued. The grants have been specifically designed to offer funding support to those who are ready to carry out proof of concept work.
- As part of the process we allocate an advice to support the development of the grant application in the form of a business plan. There is no cost the SME for this work and it allows the applicants to create a fully developed business plan which can be utilised in whichever way is best for the beneficiar
Who is eligible to the project?
- Smart Concept Fund is currently available to businesses in The Black Country, The Marches as well as Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership areas. We can support small to medium enterprises that:
- are independently owned
- have less than 250 employees
- turnover less than €50 million per annum
Smart Concept Fund Wolverhampton is targeted towards businesses that operate in the following sectors:
- Transport technologies (including aerospace and automotive)
- Building technologies/construction
- Advanced manufacturing including advanced engineering
- Environmental technologies
- Applied materials
- Agritech/agriculture, food and drink
- Medical technology
- Energy generation
- Defence and securities
