Grant Funding Strategies
GRANT FUNDING STRATEGIES
CHOOSING THE RIGHT GRANT FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Before researching grant opportunities, it’s important to know your goals. Choosing the right grant for your business requires a thorough approach, starting with a clear understanding of your strategy. Having a well-defined business plan and budget will help you narrow down your grant options to only those that complement your direction of travel.
Once you’ve defined your goals, research grants that align with your business type, industry and objectives. Different funders want and emphasise different aspects. Weigh up factors such as the grant scheme’s mission and eligibility criteria, compliance and match-funding requirements. Identify past winners for insights into successful grant recipients and the number of projects that will be funded (or average award size, if data is available) to help estimate your chances of success.
It’s also important to consider your current circumstances, as each grant scheme is designed to cater for different needs and business stages. If you’re an early-stage business or are pre-incorporation, start with a smaller grant opportunity to learn the process and get a feel for the level of administration needed. Once you’ve grown your operation and network, then build up to bigger grant opportunities.
ADVICE FROM OUR EXPERTS
“When’s a good time to apply for a grant? The answer is when you can use it properly. When you know what you want to do, and you’ve got the resources to do it.”
ADVICE FOR SOLO APPLICANTS
Tips for solo founders applying for grants:
- Demonstrate in your application that you know where to find the relevant resources and have the skills to build a team
- Build credibility by highlighting your existing networks and relevant connections in your field
- Present mitigation strategies (i.e. have a plan B and C) for resourcing and record it in the risk register on the grant application
- Integrate an external perspective by asking for feedback throughout the grant writing process – at regular points, and from different people if possible
FINDING A GRANT PARTNER
Why form a partnership collaboration?
Grant partnerships can be a vital component of a successful application. Collaborating with partners can strengthen your grant proposal and maximise your chances of success. By forming a grant partnership, organisations can pool their collective strengths, resources and contacts, expand their capabilities, and enhance the overall quality of the project. Working in partnership can also help you access new audiences by tapping into each other’s networks, helping to achieve a more significant outcome. Additionally, some types of grants require you to apply in partnership as a compulsory condition of gaining funding.
Whilst grant applications require a significant investment of time to put together, it’s equally important to prioritise finding the right project partner to collaborate with. A project could span months or even years, so it’s important to partner with someone you trust and who shares the same vision and mindset. If you’re planning to create a partnership collaboration, these tips can help:
- Identify potential partners early! Don’t wait until you are up against a grant application deadline to develop your partnerships. Start to pre-build your partnership(s) 6 months ahead of time, so you have warm leads lined up ready for when the grant call opens
- To identify suitable target organisations, go to networking events, conferences and use your word-of-mouth networks
- See who’s active in the grant space already – for example, consult previous Innovate UK awards information to identify prospective industrial partners