Supporting Local Business

Funding interventions that support local businesses

The Supporting Local Business investment priority is designed to fund interventions that support local businesses to thrive, innovate and grow.

Indicative funding has been set to approximately £2.35 million for 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2025.

The Council has developed four priority areas which this funding is focused upon:

• early years (£345,000) - programmes to enable entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses in their first years in Derby
• sector and innovation opportunities (£1.04 million) - programmes that champion innovation in product, process, or service delivery, enabling company development in Derby's key sectors
• inward investment (£600,000) - A marketing programme to bring new key sector companies or to support new external investment into the city
• recruitment, skills, and growth advisory supporting roles – (£306,000) supporting roles that help with recruitment and skills provision and growth and scale-up advice.

Following the conclusion of our Open Call and subsequent assessment process we are pleased to confirm the applicants that were successful in obtaining UKSPF grant funding to deliver their projects.

East Midlands Chamber – Derby UKSPF Accelerator

Provides a range of business improvement activities and grants under five different Accelerator strands:

1. Start-Up Accelerator

The project will deliver start-up bootcamps that aim to attract participants at different stages of their start-up journey.

Bootcamps include 10 modular workshops covering: business goals; customers and competitiveness; sales and marketing; financial planning; law and legislation; business planning.

An Enterprise Adviser will work flexibly with each participant based on their individual needs and offer bespoke consultancy support where necessary.

Support can also be provided to participants who have very specific needs to implement their business plan and do not require the workshop programme, however, would benefit from 1:1 mentoring with specific consultancy support and potential start-up grants being provided where necessary.

2. Net Zero Accelerator – delivered in partnership with the University of Derby

A suite of workshops, accredited training courses and bespoke consultancy will be delivered in partnership with the University of Derby.

Will include topics such as carbon literacy and management, energy efficiency, waste management, and Investors in the Environment.

3. Digital High Street Accelerator

Bootcamp cohorts of a 12-week series of evening webinars delivered on a range of website, e-commerce, social and digital marketing topics.

Will also support brokerage to the nationally funded Made Smarter Programme which provides Digital Technology Specialists support (led by the Chamber), leadership and management training, alongside potential access to capital grant funding.

4. Innovation Accelerator – delivered in partnership with the University of Derby

The project’s Innovation and Growth Specialist will provide intensive advisory support and guidance to selected new high-growth and scale-up clients with potential access to further support including growth vouchers, Innovate UK EDGE services or the University of Derby’s Innovation Accelerator support.

5. Financial Accelerator

The Financial Accelerator is a cross-cutting theme delivered across all project interventions and includes the opportunity for eligible applicants to be considered for:

• Growth Vouchers up to £2,000 (100% intervention) towards specialist or sector-specific training or consultancy advice linked to safeguarded jobs or the creation of business starts
• grant funding up to £2,499 (100% intervention) towards business start-up costs
• grant funding from £2,500 to £20,000 (fixed 50% intervention) to fund business innovation and growth opportunities linked to the creation of jobs, new to the firm's technology or processes or access to new markets.

View details of upcoming Accelerator events including workshops and webinars.

To learn more about the support on offer and how to access please contact the Chamber directly by email - info@emc-dnl.co.uk or telephone - 0330 0530639.

University of Derby – Derby Innovation Accelerator

The Derby Innovation Accelerator will provide innovation support to:

• established businesses with high growth potential
• pre-start and newly founded organisations with high growth potential.

Eligibility will be based on the potential for, or track record of, product, process or service delivery innovation underpinned by research and development.

The programme will provide sector agnostic innovation support to encourage diversification and growth. Whilst also providing dedicated interventions for the priority sectors of; rail, nuclear, aerospace, net zero, life sciences, digital and creative.

Capital grants for research and development are available to support innovative Derby-based companies, help them to improve performance, decarbonise and increase the scale of activity. The grants available are up to 40% and can be up to £20,000 worth of support to eligible organisations.

To ensure innovation and genuine vision for the future are supported, the parameters of the capital grants strand are designed to encourage solutions beyond the mainstream of current thinking.

For more information and examples of how the grants could be used, visit the website University of Derby - Capital grants.

The Derby Innovation Accelerator will provide:

• Innovation Workshops - to support companies who are seeking to develop their organisational absorptive capacity to achieve innovation-led growth through research and development.
• Challenge-led Workshops - for launching challenges and drawing together potential collaborators. The challenges will focus on strengthening the identified key sectors for Derby whilst inspiring innovation.
• Decarbonisation Workshops - to support companies who are seeking to grow sustainably and respond to opportunities in the low carbon and circular economies.
• Innovation Vouchers - to enable access to innovation assets, knowledge, and expertise at the University of Derby.
• Capital Grants - to stimulate private-sector investment in capital assets for eligible applications that support research and development.
• Access to Angel and Investor Networks - aimed at helping businesses better understand what equity investment is and how to prepare for and access. Through workshops and one-to-one support, selected organisation will be supported to help get their core documentation prepared and practice how to pitch to investors.

The Derby Innovation Accelerator is now live, if you would like further information about any area of support, or want to book onto a workshop, visit the University of Derby website.

The next workshop available includes support for individuals wanting to register an organisation:

Registering your Business - structuring for success

Date: 2 October 2024 9.30am to 12midday

Location: Institute for Innovation in Sustainable Engineering, University of Derby, Lonsdale House, Quaker Way, Derby DE1 3HD

Ascentant Accountancy, in partnership with University of Derby welcomes you to a morning presentation aimed at people looking to set up a business and seeking help understanding the different business structures.

During this workshop, you will learn the various legal structures of a company, the various forms of business entities, their characteristics, advantages, disadvantages and the legal implications of each.

Find out more and book

Additional workshops are available for individuals and organisations seeking Angel and Investment support, these include:

If you have an enquiry about the programme, you can email the university at derbyspf@derby.ac.uk.

Marketing Derby – Invest in Derby

Derby has a strong public-private partnership approach to attracting investment, with over £4bn secured in the last ten years, and the city's resilient economy and compelling inward investment narrative demonstrates that Derby is open for business.

The city's Queen's Award-winning Investment Promotion Agency, Marketing Derby, will deliver this programme to raise the profile of Derby with key investor audiences, attract new businesses, create new jobs and support investment into key locations, including Derby city centre.

Marketing Derby provides businesses and investors considering Derby with a confidential, independent, free-of-charge service. Its bespoke support is underpinned by its Red Carpet model, which draws on its close collaboration with the wider business community for the development of our place.

To learn more about the support available, please contact Kathryn Allen at kathryn.allen@marketingderby.co.uk or find out more on the Invest in Derby website.

Derby City Council Employment and Skills – Brokerage 4 Business

The proposed project is delivered via two key employer-focused roles:

1. Business Engagement Manager to deliver Derby Jobs recruitment brokerage service to support employers who would benefit from additional support to recruit their talent.

Derby Jobs offers a solution to the employer recruitment challenge:

• Advice on inclusive recruitment.
• Delivering a range of services including newsletters, webinars and events, that create a connection between employers and the unemployed to support employers to recruit their talent.
• Connecting employers to a range of partners and providers to support their unemployed cohorts into work.
• Support DCC priority groups into employment.

2. Employment and Skills Manager to support our priority sectors with a particular focus on green or future fuels and low carbon, digital and creative.

This role will be two-fold:

• Year 1 (2023/24) - Identify skills gaps across our priority sectors, such as creative, digital, rail, construction and low carbon, by undertaking desk-top research, consulting partners, providers and employers, mapping provision and reporting on conclusions to inform UKSPF People and Skills future (2024/25) support.
• Year 2 (2024/25) - act as Skills Advisor for business, signposting to UKSPF funded provision (and wider as identified).

It will also offer support to employers looking to access the DCC Apprenticeship Levy.

To learn more about the support on offer please go to our Derby Jobs section and also the Derby Jobs: Business recruitment support page.

You can also contact the team by e-mail at employmentandskills@derby.gov.uk.