Grants for Manufacturing Projects

Library Info

Introduction

There is a universal truth, everyone wants something for nothing! We know, of course, this is not possible. At some point, someone must pay for everything. This applies equally to the free USB pen drive you get at a trade show or the pen you pick up at a conference or meeting.

The real question is who pays and how? While on the topic of the free lunch, wouldn’t it be nice if we could appear to actually have the said free lunch.

Projects

Unlikely as it may seem, it is actually possible to get some assistance, and I mean financial assistance, with some of your project related work. There are, of course, some restrictions as to what is available and what you can do with the money available. Looking now specifically at Hertfordshire, but there are equivalent assistance schemes in other counties, there is a Grant available for manufacturers. This money can be used for a range of activities including, but not limited to

  • marketing
  • design,
  • systems,
  • strategic planning
  • growth - GREAT
  • consultancy

Money

From a practical perspective, your business must be under a certain size, such as less than 250 members of staff. However, the real advantage to this program is that somebody will cover a percentage of the costs, typically 35%, up to a maximum of £1,500. This means you can get something started and get it finished quickly, because you don’t have to worry about where the money is coming from.

Uses

The use of a program like this, significantly reduces the risk that a business undertakes in developing new processes and procedures, as they are partly funded by an external body. This means a project can be undertaken which might not otherwise materialize. It also means that changing the way a business runs itself, no longer has to be a pure risk. A pilot program can be run which will give a business the confidence that what is being done is going to be effective and beneficial to the company

An excellent example of this would be to create a strategy to explore new markets so that existing products can be sold where previously it had not been considered. It might also involve embarking on a total business transformation and introducing a system such as GREAT which empowers the workforce to make the changes and improvements that they need which has the obvious benefit of improving staff morale, staff retention and making the business more efficient, and, therefore, becoming more profitable


Help

To find out how you can benefit and access the money and use it on a project with DVANA, contact DVANA today. Alternatively, call 07973 946529 and speak to Amanda Freeland, who runs the programme.

The Grant is typically paid within a couple of days of the final submission of paperwork. Perhaps the really good bit of this programme, is that you do not have to fill out any paperwork, it is all done for you, so can you afford to ignore the free money and the professional help that can be assessed.