EEDA - East of England Development Agency

Send to a colleague

Printer-friendly version

How to access funding

To assist with this process, there are dedicated EEDA facilitators to help you develop your project and guide you through the application process.

Each facilitator is responsible for advising on different areas of the programme. Their roles are to make the rural business community aware of RDPE, to clarify access criteria to potential customers, and to assist worthwhile projects through the application process towards building strategically important rural projects for the region. All applications will need to meet EEDA's quality standards by following the Excellence Framework approach. Your EEDA facilitator will guide you on what information is required and all applications will be appraised by an independent EEDA assessor before any funding decision is made.

EEDA will deliver RDPE funding in three ways:

• open application - where the idea for a project is from a single applicant or a collaborative group
• invitation to tender - where there is a clearly defined need for the region and a variety of potential partnerships or delivery bodies could undertake delivery
• commissioning - where there is a single clear industry lead body to undertake a particular area of work on behalf of the region.

More detailed information on the three funding routes can be found in the RDPE prospectus available to download on the key documents page.
 
You can also download a flowchart of the project application process (.pdf, 48kb) and a flowchart showing the approval process (.pdf, 40kb).

Who can apply for funding?

There is a wide range of organisations, individuals and businesses that are eligible to apply for funding. Examples may include:

• farm and forestry businesses
• rural businesses
• tourism enterprises based in rural areas
• existing micro-enterprises or persons wishing to set up a micro-enterprise
• charities and/or social enterprises.

Rural Development Programme for England - opportunities  

Specific opportunities for RDPE funding in the East of England may be of interest as we focus our attention on the following RDPE measures:

• Farm Diversification (measure 311)
• Microenterprises (measure 312)
• Tourism (measure 313)

We are keen to discuss potential RDPE projects under these measures as we are currently able to approve up to €500,000 (currently/approximately £415,000) to individual projects. This will be reduced to the normal de minimis limit of €200,000 of RDPE on 1 January 2011, meaning there is a window of opportunity this year for projects seeking over €200,000 of RDPE funding under these measures. Provided an offer letter has been issued and signed by 31 December 2010, the project can be carried out and the funding be drawn down after that date. While we have focused RDPE delivery to date on collaborative projects, we appreciate that most projects eligible under these measures will relate to individual businesses, and are happy to discuss such proposals. Giving you a little more detail about these measures:

Farm Diversification (M311)

• supporting farm business restructuring through the development of alternative income sources from diversified activities
• the applicant must be a member of a farm household
• the applicants main business must be farming
• a wide range of activities and costs are eligible
• generally eligible to seek up to 50 per cent RDPE funding, on the basis of 'minimum RDPE funding necessary'.

Microenterprises (M312)

• any rural microenterprise can apply, or a person wishing to set up a rural microenterprise
• microenterprise = up to 10 full time staff, and with an annual turnover or balance sheet not exceeding €2,000,000
• wide range of activities and costs eligible
• generally eligible to seek up to 50% RDPE funding, on the basis of 'minimum RDPE funding necessary'.

Tourism (M313)

• rural tourism enterprises or a person wishing to set up a rural tourism enterprise can apply
• opportunities to improve the services on offer and make rural tourism more sustainable
• investments in recreational infrastructure
• improved environmental performance of rural tourism businesses
• generally eligible to seek up to 50% RDPE funding, on the basis of 'minimum RDPE funding necessary'.

More detailed information is available in our Regional RDPE Prospectus. To discuss potential projects please contact either:

Steven Smith
Tourism and environment
Tel. 01223 231315
stevensmith@eeda.org.uk

Sara Hind
Oversees the Leader approach and Local Action Groups
Tel. 01223 231141
sarahind@eeda.org.uk

Chris Knock
Livestock, deer, skills & local food
Tel. 01223 231272
chrisknock@eeda.org.uk

David Sillett
Senior Manager - Rural Economy
Tel. 01223 231142
davidsillett@eeda.org.uk

Share this page: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon