These two funds are part of the €250m Regional Action Plan for Jobs initiative announced in February 2015 aimed at accelerating economic recovery in every part of the country. The objective of these particular funds is to bring forward bottom up local projects and to create fresh collaborative approaches to boost enterprise and job creation at a regional level throughout Ireland.
Regional, local and community organisations and alliances have the potential to contribute to enterprise development and job creation, for example, through the development of enterprise hubs, enterprise centres and enterprise space, networks, clusters and other partnerships and by encouraging and facilitating an entrepreneurial culture, mentoring and training on starting a business. This will lead to extra start-ups, better survival rates and faster scaling among small businesses.
The economic impact of the scheme over the three year period will be to leave enhanced infrastructural support, dynamic, innovative and collaborative networks and an acceleration of employment and start-ups in local areas and across the regions.
€5million LEO Fund
A €5m fund is being made available to enable the 31 LEOs to fund initiatives focused on clearly defined opportunities, weaknesses or business challenges impacting on micro-enterprise locally, regionally and nationally in order to grow and sustain employment and scale micro-enterprise. Collaboration on initiatives between two or more LEOs from within the network of 31 LEOs is essential.
The €5m fund will cover the period 2015—2017 of which €500,000 will be available in 2015 with the balance expended over remaining period and applicant LEOs can apply for a maximum of €250,000 per project.
Projects
Priority will be given to new approaches that build on, and strengthen, the entrepreneurial ecosystem throughout the country and an innovative approach to stimulating ‘best practice’. A prerequisite for proposals is the need to demonstrate innovative solutions to fostering and creating employment. Proposed projects will not replicate existing programmes or schemes.
Illustrative examples of eligible initiatives include but are not limited to the following:
€5million Community Enterprise Initiatives Fund
The overarching goal of the Fund is to stimulate and support enterprise and job creation at a local, community and regional level. The competitive call for applications is open to new and existing organisations, groups and alliances, who collaboratively seek to promote entrepreneurship, create jobs, foster innovation and enhance export opportunities for small business. A prerequisite for proposals is the need to demonstrate innovative solutions to fostering and creating employment.
Priority will be given to new approaches that strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Rationale
Regional and local community groups and alliances have the potential to contribute to enterprise development and job creation through the development of enterprise hubs, enterprise centres and enterprise space, networks, clusters and other alliances and by encouraging and facilitating an entrepreneurial culture. The Government’s Community Enterprise Initiative will act as a catalyst to bring local, community and regional groupings together to form such alliances.
Context
The Community Initiatives Fund is competitive scheme open to proposals from new and existing organisations and groups with innovative ideas to create jobs, promote entrepreneurship, boost innovation and promote exports. A prerequisite of this scheme is to build on, and take full advantage of infrastructure, investment and supports already made by various enterprise partners such as the LEOs, EI, the Community Enterprise Centres, Skillnets, Chambers of Commerce, ETBs, HEIs, Local Development Companies as well as private sector entities in a collaborative and networked manner.
Objectives of the Community Enterprise Initiative Scheme (2015—2017)
The overarching goal of the €5m Community Enterprise Initiative is to stimulate and support enterprise and job creation throughout the country at local, community and regional level. Through the utilisation of existing infrastructure and the leveraging of nationally available enterprise supports, the specific objectives of the scheme include:
Within this is the establishment of partnership activities where innovative start-ups can be established in a supportive network before graduating to other support mechanisms or self-sufficiency