The current round of the Business Productivity and Digitisation Grant Scheme is now fully committed and any new enquiries will be placed on a waiting list. Please contact us with your details and we will contact you if further funding is allocated.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund Business Productivity and Digitisation Grant Scheme supports small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in South Yorkshire to grow, become more productive and measure that improvement.
Through the scheme, you’ll get expert support to:
- review what’s driving your business and what’s holding you back
- develop ways to increase your productivity, and apply for funding to make them happen
- measure your productivity to understand how well your changes have worked
Over 250 Sheffield businesses have already had a grant through similar projects and if you have a project in mind, don't delay in getting in touch as applications will be approved on a first come, first served basis.
This project is funded by the GOV.UK: Shared Prosperity Fund.
About the support included
Each Council in South Yorkshire runs the scheme for their own area through their business support team. If your business is based in Sheffield, you’ll work with our Business Advisors. They’ll support you to:
- understand the things that are holding your productivity back, and find ways to change them
- apply for your grant
- measure how well your changes have worked and plan your next steps
About the grants
As part of the programme, businesses can apply for a grant to help them pay for changes to make their business more productive. This could mean saving time, space, energy or materials.
There are two types of grants to apply for:
- Productivity
- Digital Innovation
At the moment, businesses can apply for either one or the other. This may change later if there is enough funding left for businesses to apply for both, but this is not guaranteed.
For both grants, the business must be able to match the grant with its own finance or another source of funding.
With a Digital Innovation Grant:
- you can apply for a grant of between £2,500 and £5,000
- this grant can pay for half of your project; your business will need to fund the other half
With a Productivity Grant:
- you can apply for a grant of between £2,500 and £25,000
- your business must be able to pay at least the same amount as your grant towards your project (in total, your project cannot cost more than £125,000)
Timeframes to be aware of
All projects must be able to deliver within the timeframes below to ensure grants can be paid before the scheme closes:
- draft applications must be submitted within 2 weeks of engaging with a Productivity Advisor
- projects must commence delivery before the end of November 2024
- projects must have completed with supplier invoices paid and claims submitted before the end of January 2025
For productivity grants between £12,500 and £25,000, projects must meet additional conditions to guarantee deliverability.
Businesses must have been trading for more than 12 months to apply for grants over £5,000. Grants are available towards both revenue, such as specialist business support, or capital investment, such as machinery, equipment and the fit-out of premises.
When you will receive the grant
The grant is paid once you have paid your project costs and given us valid proof of that payment. Your business must be able to pay project costs in full before you receive the 50% grant contribution, whether using your own funds, finance from a bank or other commercial finance.
Eligibility
In order for your business to be able to qualify for support, all of the statements below must be true. You should read these together with the full terms and conditions, which will be made available to you when you apply.
- you can meet the required timescales for project completion
- your business is a small to medium sized enterprise (SME)
- you have business premises in Sheffield (if you are not the business rates payer, you must be able to provide a lease or license)
- your business is not home-based
- your business is able to fund at least half of your project
- you can show that your project is financially viable and that grant support is needed to make it happen
- your business has received less than £315,000 of state aid/subsidy (minus the grant amount applied for) over the current and previous two consecutive fiscal years (if you’re not sure about this, get in touch with us)
How to apply
If you're a Sheffield SME and are interested in applying, the first step is to contact our friendly Advisor team. They’ll talk you through all this information, discuss your idea and support you with every step of the process.
You can get in touch with us to discuss your project and whether you’re eligible. If you need to send attachments, then email us at businesssheffield@sheffield.gov.uk.
