Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 February 2018
52. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation when the next round of the regional enterprise development fund will open for applications; the type of projects eligible for support; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5924/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Enterprise Ireland Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), launched in May 2017, is a €60 million competitive fund aimed at supporting significant regional initiatives that will build on sectoral strengths and improve enterprise capability across the regions. The REDF is intended to support the ambition, goals, and implementation of the Regional Action Plans for Jobs.
REDF funding is being made available over the period 2017-2020 under two competitive calls. The first call under the REDF concluded in August last year and in December, I announced an allocation of €30.5 million in funding across 21 successful projects from all over the country.
It is my intention to launch a second competitive call under the Fund in March of this year for the remainder of the €60 million.
As regards the type of projects that may be eligible for support, there are four streams under the Fund reflecting variations in scale and focus for project applications, as follows:
- Stream One is to support major regional, multi-regional or national sectoral initiative grants of €2m up to €5m per project in funding towards capital and current costs.
- Stream Two is to support significant county, regional or multi-regional sectoral and or enterprise initiative grants of €250k up to €2m per project in funding towards capital and current costs.
- Stream Three is for local and community enterprise projects, grants of €50k up to €250k per project in funding towards capital and current costs.
- Stream Four is to support significant Industry Clustering initiatives with grants of €50k up to €250k per project in funding towards current costs.
All projects will have to demonstrate and will be evaluated against the following criteria:
- Impacts and value for money
- Collaboration and Participation
- Viability and sustainability
- Building Regional Strengths
- Significance for innovation and Capability Building
In order to ensure a balanced regional spread, Enterprise Ireland has targeted €2m to be allocated for the best ranked project/s from each NUTS III region which have attained a minimum score of 60% or higher in the evaluation process, over the 2 Calls.
Full details are currently available in the Scheme Document on the Enterprise Ireland website.
