Business Support Capital Grant Challenge Fund Guidance

This grant scheme is funded by the UK Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

For this year of the scheme, we have a budget of £40,000 for capital projects.

The fund is open to applications for capital costs only, which can cover a fixed asset such as buildings, equipment or improvements to buildings but not repairs or replacements.

Revenue costs such as salaries or running costs will not be eligible.

The funding outcomes required to be delivered by successful applications have been selected from the set outcomes from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and are considered the most appropriate for Clackmannanshire. The objective of the UKSPF’s Business Support programme is broadly to support businesses but the UKSPF Board have specified that this grant will support IT equipment, digital development or premises improvements. As a result, this grant scheme will only accept applications delivering on any those aims. 

Clackmannanshire has one of the lowest job densities in the UK and so, with this fund, our primary aim is to create jobs or work experience opportunities for people. Therefore, applications that are able to create jobs or work experience opportunities as a result of the grant will be more favourably looked on and more likely to receive funding.

We also request that successful applicants will be able to undertake some community benefits – examples can be found in the application form.

The process of securing funding from the Business Support Capital Grant Challenge Fund is to contact Neil Ramsay at nramsay@clacks.gov.uk with your project idea and Neil will then supply the application form. Neil will administer the fund and is able to advise applicants and undertake site visits if requested.

Applications submitted before the deadline will be assessed by the UK Shared Prosperity Programme Board, which has representation from Clackmannanshire Council, the Forth Valley Chamber of Commerce, Forth Valley College and Clackmannanshire Third Sector Interface. 

There is no appeal process but unsuccessful applicants will be given feedback on their application.

Eligibility criteria

Eligibility criteria for business support projects

• Projects must be for capital costs relating to IT or digital infrastructure that is needed for the business to grow or for premises improvements. 
• Projects must be able to demonstrate at least one change in the following outputs and outcomes:
  • Outcomes for business support projects
    • Jobs created as a result of support
    • Jobs safeguarded as a result of support
    • Number of new enterprises created as a result of support
    • Number of enterprises adopting new or improved products or services
    • Number of enterprises adopting new to the firm technologies or processes
    • Number of enterprises engaged in new markets
    • Number of enterprises with improved productivity
    • Number of new to the market products
    • Number of organisations engaged in knowledge transfer activity following support
    • Number of research and development active enterprises

Applicants must have another founding document such as a Memorandum and Articles and have access to their own bank account. Sole Traders or Partnerships must show evidence of their Unique Tax Reference. Potential applicants can include business groupings but they must be constituted and have their own bank account.

Projects must not require ongoing maintenance by the Council.

Projects must be able to be completed within the financial year 2025/26. Applicants must evidence, in the application, to what extent their project is ready to start and likely to complete on time.

Applicants must be able to evidence that they have control of the asset to be invested in for a minimum of 5 years from award date by either a lease or title deeds or other documentation. Leases for shorter timescales might be considered in exceptional circumstances.

Repairs or replacements are not eligible costs and all capital grants must be for improvements or new work.

Successful applicants will be expected to sign a grant offer letter within 20 days of receiving the grant offer letter. Failing to meet this deadline may result in the funding going to another project.

We are looking for grant requests of between £1,000 and £5,000, which can be up to 100% of project costs. 

The deadline for submitting applications for funding is 5pm on Friday 26 September 2025.

Applications will be assessed by the Programme Board on the following criteria:

• Number of jobs or work placements made available through the grant.
• Impact of the project against the fund interventions listed above.
• Scale of positive impact to the business.
• How robustly the project has been planned and how likely it is to complete on time.

All applications will be scored against the criteria above with the highest scoring projects receiving the funding. Funding criteria will have an equal weight so each will constitute 25% of the score for the grant award. It is expected that applicants will be informed of the outcome of the assessment in September.

All application documentation will be sent to Programme Board members in advance of a decision meeting. At the decision meeting, each application will be discussed with every member of the Programme Board submitting scores for each project. All scores will be averaged with the highest average scored projects receiving the funding until the money is exhausted.

In the event that a project scores highly enough to be awarded grant but there is only enough money to part fund the project then the Council team will contact the applicant to ascertain if the project can be partly delivered with what is left. If this is not possible then the Council team will undertake the same process with the next highest scoring project until all the money is allocated.