Community Economic Development (CED)

Who can receive help?
Properly constituted groups, with membership open to all.  Your group must be based in Lochaber.

What kinds of projects can receive help?
Applications directly related to projects that are community based with economic development benefits.  This includes both communities of interest and geographical communities.

Capacity building aspects of projects that, encourage enterprising communities to help sustain community viability.  The CED grant should have direct impact in terms of improving community development and / or community self-management skills in relation to socio-economic and / or environment management projects.

Infrastructure improvements for community facilities that are used by a variety of local groups including those delivering community based socio-economic and environmental management projects.

Equipment and other moveable infrastructure that is related directly to the sole purpose of the project.

What kind of help can we get?
We can help with advice and funding.  CED is European funding so cannot be matched with other European funds.  We will signpost you to other potential sources of funding such as Lottery, Funder Finder or other public agency support.

What is not assisted?
We cannot help you if you have already started working on the project so contact us as soon as possible when planning your project.

If your project has costs of more than £100,000 then we are unable to assist.

Projects in the town of Fort William are excluded.

How much funding can we get?
Our average grant is 25% of total eligible costs up to a maximum of £10,000

How long does it take?
The planning stages of a community project can be lengthy.  We will work with you throughout this period.  We will assess whether your project is eligible for assistance and will help you with the application process which can take approximately 4 weeks from receipt of application.

We will continue to give you advice and support once your project is up and running.

What next?
Contact us with details of your project.