A grant is an amount of money given to an individual or business for a specific project or purpose.

You can apply for a grant from the government, the European Union, local councils and charities

You won’t need to pay a grant back, but there’s a lot of competition and they are almost always awarded for a specific purpose or project.

Advantages

Advantages include:

• you won’t have to pay a grant back or pay interest on it
• you won’t lose any control over your business

Disadvantages

Disadvantages include:

• you’ll have to find a grant that suits your specific project, which can be difficult
• there’s a lot of competition for grants
• you’ll usually be expected to match the funds you’re awarded, e.g. a grant might cover part of the cost of a project but you’ll have to fund some of it yourself
• grants are usually awarded for proposed projects, not ones that have already started
• the application process can be time-consuming

Contains public sector information licenced under the Open Government Licence v2.0.