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Business Productivity and Digitisation Grant Scheme

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) Business Productivity and Digitisation Grant Scheme has been extended with additional funding. This funding must be committed to new applicants by October 2025.

The Business Productivity and Digitisation Grant Scheme supports small to medium sized enterprises in South Yorkshire to grow, become more productive and measure that improvement.

Over 200 Sheffield businesses have already had a productivity grant, resulting in the creation of more than 100 new jobs and the implementation of 120 new products or processes.

This project is funded by the GOV.UK: Shared Prosperity Fund.

About the support

Each Council in South Yorkshire runs the scheme for their own area through their business support team. If your business is based in Sheffield, you'll work with our Business Advisors. They'll support you to:

  • understand the things that are holding your productivity back, and find ways to change them
  • apply for your grant
  • measure how well your changes have worked and plan your next steps

About the grants

As part of the programme, businesses can apply for a grant to help them pay for changes to make the business more productive. This could mean making changes to existing operations and systems to save time, space or materials.

Your business will need to contribute 50% of the funding towards the project and the grant will cover the rest.

There are 2 types of grants to apply for: 

  • productivity - apply for a grant of between £2,500 and £10,000
  • digital innovation - apply for a grant of between £2,500 and £5,000

Businesses can apply for either one or the other. 

Grants are available towards both revenue (such as specialist business support) or capital investment (such as machinery, equipment and the fit-out of premises).

Case studies
Triple Point Brewery

Triple Point launched in March 2019 and quickly grew from an on-site bar to a trade supplier. By 2022, despite slow growth during lockdown, the brewery was growing faster than their space would allow.

The team applied for a Business Productivity Grant to expand their brewing hall into the warehouse next door. This made further productivity-boosting projects possible. An extra fermentation vessel has already been installed, adding 16% to brewing capacity and creating an extra full-time job. The team plans to add a further two vessels and a new chiller unit. In future, the new space will also make it possible for the team to explore the automatic packaging of beer into kegs and cans.

Triple Point Managing Director, Mike Brook, commented, “The need for new drains, piping and hygienic flooring was a real barrier to us growing Triple Point and was very difficult for us to fund. The productivity grant made this possible and we are really excited about the new opportunities this has opened up.”

JAM Designers

Jonny and Matt met while designing for a global street furniture company. They now work with factories around the world on projects from electric bikes to dog toys and fishing equipment to exhibition stands.

Their Business Productivity Grant enabled them to purchase a state-of-the-art 3D printer. Being able to print themselves has allowed them to streamline their development process, save time and costs.

Not only has this made the business more profitable; the JAM team is passing on time and cost savings to their clients, so they can get products on the market faster.

“Comparing previous projects with new projects, we can easily see the time saved,” says Matt Bowman.

“We have seen cost savings for our clients and the service we can offer has been improved. We are able to move concepts forward faster, speeding up the critical decisions that keep the project moving. We can explore and model ideas more thoroughly, helping us create better products for our clients.

“This was the first grant that we had ever applied for, so having help from Business Sheffield was incredibly helpful. Rachel talked us through the entire process and helped us understand what we could and couldn’t apply for. Having her guidance was key to us getting the grant. Since then, we have had regular catch ups to see how things have been progressing.”

Silver Healthcare

Silver Healthcare received a Productivity Grant to improve our digital infrastructure. 

"This funding has been transformative for our organisation. By upgrading our systems, we have achieved significant time savings and efficiencies for our management and staff, allowing them to focus more on providing vital care to our residents. Additionally, the improved digital infrastructure has given us better access to information, enabling us to manage our business more efficiently and make informed decisions. 

The upgrades have also added value to our ability to bid for NHS, Local Authority and Government tenders, helping us secure contracts and provide stability for the business. Being to able to project forwards and budget for the business based on sustainable revenues is a game changer. This allows us to push forward with other improvements and upgrades that we wouldn’t normally have been able to fund without a more long term view."

Eligibility

Funding is limited and demand is high, therefore grants are provided on a first come, first served basis. You may only apply for one grant per business.

Before contacting the team, you need to be aware of the eligibility criteria. To be eligible to apply for a grant, you must:

  • be trading for 12 months or more (for grants over £5,000)
  • have commercial premises registered in Sheffield (if you're not the business rates payer, you must be able to provide a lease or license)
  • be able to complete the project and pay supplier invoices in full by November 2025
  • cover the full cost of the project in advance of claiming the grant
  • meet the required timescales for project completion
  • have received less than £315,000 of state aid / subsidy (minus the grant amount applied for) over the current and previous two consecutive fiscal years

Exclusions

You cannot apply for a grant if you:

  • are a pre revenue business
  • are a company with over 250 employees
  • have already received a grant from the previous UKSPF Productivity and Digitisation project (between April 2023 and March 2025)

The application process

If you feel you meet the eligibility criteria, you will then need to contact the team with your details and we will respond to you as follows:

  • a member of our team will reach out to discuss the project with you
  • if the project is considered suitable, you will receive a referral form to outline the project
  • we will assess the referral, and if we consider you eligible, will send you an application form to submit
  • if your application is approved by our panel, you will be issued a grant offer letter
  • your project will start within one month of the grant offer

Please do not commit to any project activity prior to the grant offer letter being issued, as this will invalidate your application.

How to apply

To apply for a grant please contact businessproductivityEOI@sheffield.gov.uk. Ensure that you provide the following information:

  • business name
  • postcode
  • contact name
  • email address
  • telephone number

You will be contacted by one of our team to discuss your project within 10 working days.

For businesses based elsewhere in South Yorkshire

If you're based in Barnsley, contact Enterprising Barnsley on 01226 773003 or email investment@barnsley.gov.uk.

If you're based in Doncaster, contact Business Doncaster on 01302 735555 or email sharon.finch@doncaster.gov.uk.

If you're based in Rotherham, contact Rotherham Investment and Development Office on 01709 331133 or email info@rido.org.uk.

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