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Ministers of State with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Robert Troy TD and Damien English TD, today announced €10 million in government funding available under the Regional Enterprise Transition Scheme.
Through Enterprise Ireland, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment will provide grant funding under the Scheme to regional and community-based projects focused on helping enterprises to adapt to the changing economic landscape due to COVID-19 and Brexit, in addition to projects supporting digitalisation and assisting in the transition to a green economy.
Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, Damien English TD said:
"I am pleased to announce with Minister Troy that the Regional Enterprise Transition Scheme and Feasibility Study fund, together totaling €10 million, are now open for applications from today. These strategic funds are about supporting projects with regional impact in order to increase internationalisation opportunities and create sustainable job opportunities right across the country.
"Crucially, the Transition Scheme will help build COVID-19 and Brexit resilience and enable applicants to support enterprises and SME’s to respond to recent economic and market challenges which also includes the transition to a low carbon economy, digital transformation and smart specialisation. As well as supporting the expansion of existing projects, I am also very pleased to see that the Scheme includes a new €500k Feasibility Fund of up to €50,000 per project being made available by Enterprise Ireland to advance very early-stage projects."
Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Robert Troy TD said:
"This government is committed to fostering and delivering balanced regional development. The €10 million funding scheme we are announcing today will help stimulate transformational regional projects to support enterprises embrace the opportunities of digitalisation, the green economy as well as navigate the changed landscape arising from COVID-19. This will assist in helping regional enterprises identify areas for growth and expansion in Ireland and other markets.
"The Tánaiste, Minister English and I are currently overseeing the development of nine new Regional Enterprise Plans to 2024. These Plans will aim to identify growth opportunities and strengthen the regional enterprise ecosystem to enable job creation across the regions. This Scheme will help unlock regional potential identified in these Plans from the bottom-up, and through continued collaboration between the public and private sectors, will have an impact in all regions. I look forward to seeing impactful regional projects being put forward for funding under the Scheme."
Of the funding being made available under the new Scheme, €9.5 million is targeted at existing regional and community-based projects previously supported under the Regional Enterprise Development Fund and Border Enterprise Development Fund that can demonstrate the ability to deliver additional impact and execute project deliverables in the current year. Grants of up to €1.8m or 80 percent of project cost (whichever is lesser) are available. The projects should aim to address COVID-19 impacts and improve the capability and competitiveness of regional enterprises and encourage entrepreneurial activity, innovation and productivity.
The call for the Regional Enterprise Transition Scheme is open for applications from today and closes on 8 September 2021. The successful projects of this 2021 programme will be announced in October and all funding will be provided to the successful applicants before the end of the year.
The €0.5 million Feasibility Fund is open to new projects, with grants available of up to €50,000 or 50 percent of project cost (whichever is the lesser) and will allow promoters test their project concept and deliver virtual or site-based solutions to their target audience. The Feasibility Fund is open for applications from today and closes on 1 October 2021.
Leo Clancy, CEO, Enterprise Ireland said:
"The Regional Enterprise Transition Scheme is aimed at supporting regional development and the regional business eco-system, helping to create and sustain jobs in the regions impacted by COVID-19. Following a rigorous evaluation process, the previous calls for both the Regional and Border Enterprise Development Funds provided funding totaling €117 million which funded 68 regional projects and 11 border projects. We look forward to working with the regional stakeholders on innovative proposals to provide additional support to these projects at a regional level."
For further information, contact:
The calls for both funds are open for applications from today and the Regional Enterprise Transition element closes at 12.00 on 8 September 2021, while the last date for receipt of Feasibility Fund applications is 12.00 on 1 October 2021. Funding for the €9.5m Regional Enterprise Transition Scheme must be claimed by all the successfully selected project applicants for payment in 2021.
For further information, please see terms of reference for the Regional Enterprise Transition Scheme and the RETS Feasibility Study Fund.