Funding

Cairngorms LEADER have opened a Small Grants Programme to fund quick-impact small projects.

You can apply for grants between £500 and £5,000 for projects that benefit those who live, work and visit the Cairngorms National Park.

Cairngorms LEADER can fund from 50% to 100% of total project costs, and can even pay up to 50% of the total grant awarded in advance.

The rural charity RSABI has launched its 2015/16 Help for Heating Fund.

Fixed grants of £300 are available to anyone with a background in farming, crofting, forestry, horticulture, fish-farming, game-keeping and rural estate work, who is in fuel poverty (when a household has to spend 10% or more of its income to maintain acceptable levels of warmth) and meets RSABI criteria for receiving financial help.

RSABI Welfare Manager, John Macfarlane, who oversees the Help for Heating Fund said:

The Scottish Government is hosting a series of workshops to discuss the Environmental Co-operation Action Fund and to answer questions about the scheme.

These free workshops will include general queries and, if you are thinking about applying, questions on eligibility, priorities, and project proposals with a view to encouraging high quality applications.

The second funding round of the Food Processing, Marketing and Cooperation scheme closes for applications on 15 November.

Changes to the Scottish Government's Croft House Grant Scheme are being considered following a public consultation.

The Croft House Grant Scheme (CHGS) provides up to £1.4 million in grants each year towards the cost of building or improving homes with the aim of attracting and retaining people in the crofting areas of Scotland.

Kelvin Valley and Falkirk are the latest Local Action Group to launch their LEADER programme.

At a packed event in Kilsyth’s Colzium House on 29 October over 70 attendees heard how the £2.8 million fund will support economic and community development in rural parts of Falkirk, North Lanarkshire and East Dumbartonshire.

Two European Interreg funding programmes are currently calling for application proposals.

Public and private organisations can submit applications to the Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) Programme on Innovation, Low Carbon and Resource and Materials Efficiency until 30 November.

The Programme encourages public, scientific, private and civil society organisations to cooperate with a view to improving the economic, environmental, territorial and social development of Europe's regions.  

A new website will act as a central location for information, news and resources about Participatory Budgeting in Scotland.

Participatory budgeting (PB) is recognised as a way for local people to have a direct say in how, and where, public funds can be used to address local requirements.

Different PB models exist, although it normally involves members of the community deciding through a voting process how to spend part of the budget of a public agency such as a local authority.