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Posted: Mon 31st Mar 2025
Applications have opened for the latest round of funding from the government's Create Growth Programme, which supports high growth creative businesses to scale.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport scheme is delivered by Innovate UK and has £8m to invest in innovation projects.
The programme is open to micro, small and medium sized businesses from the creative industries based in 12 regions in England:
Greater Manchester
Norfolk, Suffolk & Cambridgeshire
North East of England
West of England and Cornwall
South East Coast
Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Greater Lincolnshire
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
Hull & East Yorkshire
West Midlands
West Yorkshire
Devon
Hertfordshire
Grants are available to cover projects with costs between £20,000 and £50,000 and between £50,000 and £200,000.
Projects must last between three and six months, start on or after 1 October 2025 and end by 31 March 2026.
Applications close at 11am on 29 May and successful applicants will be notified on 1 August.
The Create Growth Programme was originally set up in 2022 with £17.5m investment in six regions, of which £7m was provided to Innovate UK to invest via a series of awarded competitions.
In July 2023, the previous government published its creative industries sector vision, which included an additional £10.9m to support a further six regions.
The Labour government has since announced a total of £40m in funding for various creative sector schemes.
