The Scottish Government opened the latest round of funding from the DigitalBoost Fund on Tuesday and so far thousands of bids for funding have been received. The portal has now been closed due to the level of response.
Businesses can still register their interest in any future rounds and access free support and advice. The fund totals £25 million offering a matched funding investment from £2,500 to £20,000.
Economy Secretary Kate Forbes said: “The response to our DigitalBoost Fund has once again been exceptional, with thousands of businesses registering their interest in a matter of hours. As this latest round of funding offers 50/50 match funding, we have potentially secured £25 million of additional private sector funding in our economy.
“This level of interest represents the confidence business have in Scotland’s economy and workforce and demonstrates their level of digital ambition.
“I appreciate some will be frustrated that the registration process has closed so quickly, however free advice and support continues to be available. We will also be continuing to support businesses and have committed to investing over £100 million to support our businesses to digitise over the course of this parliament.”
£20 million was already allocated in January 2021, and the government says that in the recent Digital Economy Business Survey (2021) 75% of business reported digital technologies had positively impacted their productivity, innovation and/or low carbon working.
An independent evaluation of the previous DigitalBoost grant highlighted that almost 69% recipients reported increases in the quality of their service or product as a result of their grant.
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