North of Tyne Culture & Creative Investment Programme Grants – UK

This financial support is to enable freelancers and SMEs to build on their commercial ideas, and to create opportunities to become more sustainable or grow their businesses.

Funding Information

• The maximum amount available for business planning support is £8,000. Please note that the average grant award will be £5,000, and in exceptional cases, it may be higher.

Eligible Activity

• These grant investments are to support businesses to enable long-term sustainability and/or growth. This could include:
  • Diversification – to try out a new and potentially high-risk business activity which may lead to new revenue streams
  • Working new partnerships or existing partnerships in a different way
  • Trying out a new business model
  • Bringing in short term expertise – digital, marketing, finance, legal, IP or technical (to support product/prototype development)
  • Small Capital purchase
  • To enable the business to adapt to become greener and more environmentally sustainable
  • To acquire new skills within the business, through up skilling the existing workforce or acquiring new staff, including supporting internships/apprenticeships.
• They cannot fund retrospective activity and costs. Good and services already contracted will not be eligible.
• To be eligible to apply, you must be able to demonstrate that you have been trading (i.e. making sales) for at least one year.

Who is it for?

• Cultural and creative SMEs and freelancers who are based in the North of Tyne (Newcastle, North Tyneside or Northumberland). They are primarily looking to support enterprises that are registered and trading in the North of Tyne region and contributing to the local creative and cultural economy.
• Subsidy Control: Eligible businesses must not have received more than €325,000 (circa £280,000 as of May 2021) in Special Drawing Rights and/or De Minimis Aid in the last 3 year rolling period.

For more information, visit Creative UK.