DCMS Create Growth Programme Competition 4: Large Projects

The aim of this competition is to provide a package of targeted support to high-growth creative businesses to scale, build investor networks, and reach their full potential. This funding is designed to help creative businesses explore new innovation projects as a stimulus for growth.

This strand (Strand 2) is focused on larger, more ambitious creative projects with total eligible costs between £50,000 and £200,000. This strand requires match funding.

For this competition, Innovate UK expects micro and small businesses to claim a maximum grant of up to £140,000 and medium-sized businesses to claim a maximum grant of up to £120,000. The remainder of your total project costs must be match-funded. Grant requests outside of the permitted levels will be deemed ineligible.

The 12 DCMS Create Growth Programme appointed regions are:

• Greater Manchester
• Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire
• North East of England
• West of England and Cornwall
• South East Coast
• Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and Greater Lincolnshire
• Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
• Hull and East Yorkshire
• West Midlands
• West Yorkshire
• Devon
• Hertfordshire

Your proposal must:

• Be from the creative industries
• Be from a micro, small, or medium-sized enterprise registered or operational in an appointed Create Growth Programme region
• Focus on a clear growth opportunity and the proposed innovation to address it
• Demonstrate the impact funding and support can have on the growth plan of your business
• Demonstrate how your business has either engaged with or intends to engage with the ongoing regional support provided by the programme

The programme support comprises three complementary strands:

• Business support targeted at the creative industries
• Finance
• Investor capacity-building activities

You cannot allocate more than 75% of your total project costs to subcontractors.