Month: January 2009

I attended the Creative Industries Innovation Fund breakfast briefing with Kate Keys (Sectoral Business Development Manager at the Arts Council) this morning at The Presidents Club in Belfast. It was hosted by The Creative Entrepreneurs Club, a networking group funded by Belfast City Council.

The CIIF provides access to funding for many who would not normally be able to access funding. For one thing, it covers:

• services
• content
• events
• originals

– a lot of which cannot be covered by InvestNI’s funding charter due to the type of work (content, services, events) or the expectations (forecasting of £100K revenues). The CIIF is therefore an important part of the framework – and for this reason, existing INI clients may not be eligible. This has to be taken with a pinch of reason – someone who attended the Start A Business programme 7 years ago is an INI client but would not be restricted from applying for this grant but someone who is in receipt of an InvestNI grant in the last three years may not be eligible – in all cases, talking to your client executive is important (and even dragging him or her to the discussion with the Arts Council might be useful).

The subject of ‘not being eligible’ drew some fire from the crowd but there are very good reasons for it.

• This fund is for people and companies who cannot normally avail of InvestNI funding for whatever reason. InvestNI cannot normally invest in content creation or fund the running of an event highlighting creative work – this attempts to cover that.
• EC Regulations regulate the amount of support that a company can receive in three fiscal years to €200 000. There’s a detailed page at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform which explains this fully.
• There’s degrees of interpretation here. Again, if you received the £400 marketing grant as a startup, you may indeed be eligible. If your company is a new startup based around a “Collaborative Special Purpose Vehicle” then it may be fine even if some of the collaborators were previous recipients.

There are two calls remaining for CIIF applications. One started on the 5th January and ends on the 5th February. The last call starts on the 7th September and ends on the 8th October. Applications will take approximately 8 weeks to process and feedback will be given if your application is unsuccessful – the guidance was to speak to them first, apply in the first call and if unsuccessful, obtain the feedback ad re-apply for the second calls.

The judging panel for these applications will have input from the Arts Council, InvestNI, the Department of Employment and Learning, The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Industry and the Department of Culture, Arts and Learning.

The CIIF is a part of the funding ecosystem of the Northern Ireland marketplace. It fits around the funding available from InvestNI, NIScreen, the Arts Council and other funding bodies.

I found it incredibly encouraging to be in a room which had run out of seating, where I was sitting beside an award-winning clothes designer and someone from an award-winning design and branding company. There were a few familiar faces as well – all keen to find out how their next great project can be turned into a reality.

60% of the fund will be going to fund 143 individual projects over the next two-and-a-bit years to March 2011. The remaining 40% will be distributed to Sectoral Bodies ( councils, universities, sector leads ) to run projects which will help focus on the themes of innovation, creativity, collaboration and entrepreneurship. The Arts Council are urging individuals to apply early and apply often. The demand received for this fund will help indicate a further and/or extended funding requirement for the future.