
Natural and Cultural Heritage Fund: Outcomes and Eligibility
The Natural and Cultural Heritage Fund supports new opportunities to promote the outstanding scenery, wildlife and culture of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in ways which support inclusive and sustainable economic growth. It will help to retain jobs and sustain populations and services in rural communities.
The NCHF map of the Highlands and Islands identifies the areas covered by the fund.
This Challenge Fund of £8.9million of ERDF money was available through a single competitive funding round which opened on 14 January and closed on 22 April 2019. This money supports 13 major projects to be delivered by June 2023. Projects sought an ERDF grant of a minimum of £250k. The total eligible project costs had to be a minimum of £360k. Projects were only supported if they demonstrated sensitive management and safeguarding of those heritage assets for future generations.
The Fund is one of the Strategic Interventions (SI) in the 2014–2020 European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programme. The aim of the ERDF is to invest in communities to help them to grow economic activity and employment. The Fund contributes up to 70% of project costs and will deliver a total value of £22,686,314 of investment throughout the course of the programme, including the match funding which applicants are required to find.
For general background information on European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) in Scotland, visit the Scottish Government's ESIF website and Scot Gov ESIF Twitter page
The successful projects primarily relate to the natural and cultural heritage assets of the Highlands and Islands and were assessed against how well they deliver against the following outcomes. Projects were not required to deliver on every outcome, but were more likely to be successful in funding if they demonstrated that they would deliver on two or more.
The ERDF 2014-2020 programme has Horizontal Themes which cut across all the activity it funds. Challenge Fund projects were assessed against the principles of the Horizontal Themes. These will be monitored during and after delivery, so projects must build these themes into their projects.
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