The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has announced that a new £1.1 million tranche of the Rural Micro Capital Grant Scheme is now open for applications.
The scheme offers grants of between £500 and £2,000 to rural community-led, voluntary organisations for projects tackling issues of local poverty and social isolation within rural communities across Northern Ireland
A minimum of 15% match funding is required from those organisations applying for aid under the scheme.
The measure is funded from DAERA’s Tackling Rural Poverty and Social Isolation (TRPSI) Programme.
DAERA
In order to be eligible for the grant funding, the department has advised that projects should focus on one of the following themes:
- Modernisation of premises/assets;
- Information communication technology;
- Health and wellbeing;
- Energy efficiency/environmental improvements.
The scheme can offer grant aid from 50% up to 85% of the total eligible cost of a project. However, the department noted that the total project cost must not exceed £4,000.
In order to ensure that as many groups as possible get the opportunity to benefit from this funding, organisations can only make one application to the scheme.
Projects must be completed and claims for grant have to be submitted by March 25, 2025.
Launching the second tranche of the Rural Micro Capital Grant Scheme, DAERA Minister Andrew Muir recognised the role played by rural support networks in supporting rural community development.
“Since the Rural Micro Capital Grant Scheme was introduced in 2015, grant aid totalling £6.1 million has been invested in 4,717 projects.
“This investment has made a considerable difference to rural voluntary and community organisations and the communities they serve across Northern Ireland,” he said.
Under tranche 1, grant aid totalling £1.4 million has been invested in 896 projects delivered by rural voluntary and community sector organisations for projects tackling local issues of poverty and/or social isolation.
The scheme closes for applications 12:00p.m on Thursday, December 5, 2024.
