Eligibility

What type of projects does LEADER fund?

In order for a project to be eligible for LEADER funding it must:

• Address rural issues
• Be innovative, sustainable, involve the local community, have substantial community benefits, take into account equal opportunities and be transferable (result in the sharing of good practice)
• Assist the LEADER target groups (women, young people, small businesses, the under-employed and people in more remote rural areas or with accessibility difficulties).
• Contribute to the LEADER Programme’s main themes and priority areas (see below)

Main Themes

The main themes of the Scottish Borders LEADER Programme are:

Progressive Rural Economy

Revitalising Rural Communities

In order to join up the activities supported by the LEADER Programme, all eligible activities are clustered into six ‘innovation areas’ within these two themes:

Progressive Rural Economy

• Diverse and Sustainable Rural Businesses
• Inclusive Rural Economy
• Distinctive Local Products.

 Revitalising Rural Communities

• Enhanced Natural, Built and Cultural Environment
• Cohesive and Sustainable Rural Communities
• Innovative and Integrated Community Services.

Each LEADER project proposal must show how it relates to these activities to helps achieve the aims of the LEADER Programme. The Information Note lists the types of activities which can be supported by LEADER under each of these ‘innovation areas’. Some examples of eligible activities include:

• Support for the development of business connections and networking, including links between sectors
• Support for the development and provision of access to local market intelligence and business information, including new business opportunities (with a particular focus on women and young people)
• Facilitation, commissioning and/or funding support for specific youth engagement and rural entrepreneurship initiatives.
• Encourage and support the development of innovative community based approaches to securing and managing funding and managing finances within the community (including the strategic use of wind farm contributions)
• Support for projects that make rural areas more accessible and attractive to live and work
• Skills development and training (including capitalising on the skills of older people)
• Support for the creation of ‘computer learning environments’, providing hubs for skills training in rural areas.
• Support for new product development, market research and market testing
• Specific support for the development and implementation of business co-operation for product development and marketing particularly to address issues of scale which may constrain development potential
• Research and feasibility studies to test the viability of new ideas that capitalise on natural, built and cultural assets
• Support for projects which increase and encourage dialogue and joint activity between older people and young people
• Support for projects which increase the involvement of women in the local economy
• Support for projects which develop community leadership