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01/08/2012 - £1 Million Business Investment Fund for England's Creative SMEs Now Open
Creative England's new Business Investment Fund has been set up to support the growth strategies of ambitious, non-London-based, creative companies in England.
It will support those with plans to advance their operations through the development and commercialisation of innovative content and cross-platform applications.
The main focus for investment will be in companies that plan to exploit commercial opportunities in one or more of these areas:
- Cross platform television development
- Healthcare
- Government services
- Games and interactive entertainment
- Business-to-business
- E-learning
- Mobile applications
There is a total of £1 million available, to be allocated as interest-free loans of between £50,000 and £100,000 per application. The loans can account for up to 50% of the development costs involved with selected projects.
Investments are intended to assist companies with the development of linear and non-linear and interactive media content that has a clear route to market and the potential to generate significant value for the company in terms of subsequent production investment and IP exploitation.
Eligible costs include:
- Labour Costs: The cost of key staff employed on a full or part time basis by the company.
- External specialist costs: consultants working on part of the project to carry out tasks; including fees and expenses for researchers/consultants, scriptwriters, production managers and other freelance specialists.
- Capital equipment and materials costs where these assets are used solely for the project.
- Other costs: production costs not covered above and associated with screen tests, taster tapes and pilots and licensing of new technology.
Applications are invited from creative small to medium-sized companies (SMEs) in England that are based outside of London. In line with the Regional Growth Fund objective, priority will be given to companies based in the North, West Midlands and South West regions.
Jim Farmery, Creative England's director of business development, said: "By launching this programme I hope we can stimulate the development of some really interesting content and applications and support projects that otherwise would have struggled to get off the ground."
The deadline for registrations of interest is Friday 31 August 2012. The deadline for receipt of full applications is Friday 12 October 2012.
Click here for more information (opens in new window).
Source: Creative England, 01/08/2012
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