Business Explorer Programme
Innovation Pathway of guidance and support to tackle business problems or develop new product ideas through innovation.
To be eligible for support under the Business Explorer businesses must:
- Be a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) with 5 – 249 employees (part-time/full time).
- Be an SME which is a manufacturing or tradable services company, located on the island of Ireland (North or South).
- Be financially viable by demonstrating a minimum of £250,000 annual turnover for Explore and £300,000 for Plan and up to a max £40 million (guided figure). Priority given to businesses with less than 100 staff and less than £10 million turnover.
- Have a minimum 2 year trading history.
- Be an SME indigenous to the island of Ireland.
- Be in the early stages of exploring a business challenge/new idea and need support to find an innovative solution.
- Be an SME which is able to demonstrate the capacity and commitment to support
To be eligible for support under the Business Explorer businesses must:
- Be a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) with 5 – 249 employees (part-time/full time).
- Be an SME which is a manufacturing or tradable services company, located on the island of Ireland (North or South).
- Be financially viable by demonstrating a minimum of £250k annual turnover to £40m (guided figure). Priority given to businesses with less 100 staff and less than £10m turnover. Have a minimum 2 year trading history.
- Be an SME indigenous to the island of Ireland.
- Be in the early stages of exploring a business challenge/new idea and need support to find an innovative solution.
- Be an SME which is able to demonstrate the capacity and commitment to support an InterTradeIreland Innovation programme project at senior management level.
The Business Explorer programme are the first 2 steps on InterTradeIreland's Innovation Pathway.
There are two levels of funding within the Business Explorer programme.
You can apply initially for Explore, which will give you access to specialist support through an academic or industry specialist to begin to explore the challenges within your business or the idea you would like to develop.
You can progress from Explore to Plan to continue working with an academic or industry specialist to develop a plan to integrate the solution or new idea into your business. When a business completes the Business Explorer they can move to the next step on the Innovation Pathway to Innovation Boost (eligibility dependent). You will be working with an academic or industry specialist in the opposite jurisdiction to where your business is based.
Businesses involved in the following sectors are not considered eligible for funding: Wholesale/retail, distribution, tourism, hospitality, primary agriculture, personal services. Professional business services will only be considered where the proposed project will develop a product or service which will be traded internationally.
Areas not supported include sales and marketing, training, purchasing of equipment, business consultancy, business plans, website development and e-commerce platforms. This is not an exhaustive list as this programme is a Pilot. The funding support is for businesses engaging primarily in process improvement or product development.
- InterTradeIreland