How To Apply
To apply for funding from Southern Oxfordshire LEADER your business or organisation needs to be situated within the boundaries of the designated Southern Oxfordshire area.
Five key themes were identified in the local development strategy to focus the funding around. Your project needs to support one or more of the following themes:
- Encouraging enterprise and business innovation
- Improving tourism in rural locations and enhancing heritage and landscape
- Addressing social exclusion
- Skills development for rural areas
- Addressing climate change is a cross-cutting theme
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To view an enlarged version of the map please click on the link below |
The Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) has outlined the following areas that, along with the themes mentioned above, each project should fit in to:
• Modernisation of agricultural
• Adding value to agricultural and forestry products
• Diversification into non-agricultural activities
• Support for the creation and development of micro-businesses
• Encouragement of tourism activities
• Basic services for the economy and rural population
• Village renewal and development
• Conservation and upgrading of the rural heritage
• Training and information for economic actors
For more details see the prospectus at http://www.seeda.org.uk/RDPE/SEEDA_Funding/
For guidance on village hall and community centre project applications please download the guidance note here
If you are interested in applying for a grant of up to £50,000 from the Southern Oxfordshire Leader group please contact Kate Forrest on 01491 823176 or info@southernoxfordshireleader.org.uk for an informal chat. The next stage is to complete one of the expression of interest application forms.
| Forms available to download |
| Expression of interest - rural businesses and communities |
| Useful documents to download |
| Assess the strategic fit of your project |
Grants are available for up to £50,000, but typically they will be for £20,000 – 30,000, they can only be used for between 30% and 50% of the cost of a project. This money must be match funded by another source of funding.
Information on alternative sources of funding
Farm Resource Improvement Programme
FRIP is a programme of support which has been developed to help farmers and horticultural businesses in South East England and London to improve competitiveness through resource efficiency and animal health and welfare practices. FRIP is a sub-programme within RDPE which aims to simplify the application process and provide grants up to £25,000 per farm business.
For more information on FRIP and to download the guidance and application form, please visit the SEEDA website using the link below:
Farm Resource Improvement Programme