Enterprise

Over 70 people and rural representatives from Scotland gathered online and in Birnam on Tuesday 8^th November to agree actions to support Scotland’s Rural Movement.

A total of 33 businesses, large and small, will receive grants ranging from £16,000 to £1.4 million from the Food Processing, Marketing and Cooperation (FPMC) grant scheme.

Projects include capacity building for a dairy farm to meet the growing demand for its soft cheese, setting up of a new venison processing operation and installation of solar panels at a butcher premises to reduce carbon footprint and minimise electricity costs.

Festival fever has hit Upper Nithsdale, Dumfries and Galloway, with the triumphant return of the Festival of Folklore!

The Helping it Happen Awards 2022, run by Scottish Land & Estates, have announced the finalists within the remaining four of their nine categories. Each of these categories focuses on rural businesses and how these businesses interact with their local communities and with visitors – highlighting how rural areas are underpinned by the business operating within them.

Thousands of businesses can now apply for up to £15,000 to help retrain and upskill their workforce.

The Scottish Government’s Flexible Workforce Development Fund provides workers in organisations of all sizes with access to training courses through local colleges, the Open University in Scotland and Skills Development Scotland.

If you're a Scottish resident aged 25 or over you can participate in a huge range of fully funded learning via Skills Development Scotland.

The Social Innovation Challenge (SIC) funds and supports innovators to kick-start solutions that tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time. The programme is centred around a theme each year. Building on the legacy of COP26, the 2022 theme is: innovative solutions to climate change issues faced by rural communities in Scotland.