Circular Economy Investment Fund allocations 2016-2017: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/03289
Date received: 6 November 2018
Date responded: 13 December 2018

 

Information requested

 

You asked for: 

• The total amount paid out by the circular economy investment fund between 2016-2017.
• A breakdown of this expenditure as a percentage of total funding available. 
• The number of payments made by the fund. 
• The number of applications received by the fund.

In correspondence you clarified that you would like the information by financial year, and by calendar year covering 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2017.

Response

 

 As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations.  We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.  

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. 

 

This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

 

The answer to your question is included in the table below:

 

2016/2017 Financial Year
Total amount paid out by the fund between 2016-2017	6 grant funding offers made totalling £1,819,081 Cash Expenditure £102,299
A breakdown of this expenditure as a percentage of the total funding available	The funding offers represent 50.8% of £3,577,000 budgeted for in 2016/17   Zero Waste Scotland makes payments to successful applicants under the terms of the Circular Economy Investment Fund grant agreements, which contain an agreed milestone payment plan. Grantees are expected to incur costs prior to claiming from Zero Waste Scotland and are required also to provide appropriate evidence for their claim prior to payments being made.
Number of Payments made by the fund	8
Number of Applications received by the fund	The fund operates with a two-stage application process. 145 applications received 30 Stage 2 applications received

1st April 2016 to 31st December 2017*
Total amount paid out by the fund between 2016-2017	19 grant funding offers made totalling £4,547,870 Cash expenditure £233,395
A breakdown of this expenditure as a percentage of the total funding available	The funding offers represent 72.28% of £6,292,000 budgeted for in the time period.   Zero Waste Scotland makes payments to successful applicants under the terms of the Circular Economy Investment Fund grant agreements, which contain an agreed milestone payment plan. Grantees are expected to incur costs prior to claiming from Zero Waste Scotland and are required also to provide appropriate evidence for their claim prior to payments being made.
Number of Payments made by the fund	16
Number of Applications received by the fund	The fund operates with a two-stage application process. 236 applications received. 48 Stage 2 applications received

*Please note the fund opened for applications on 1st April 2016

 

The Circular Economy Investment Fund was launched in April 2016, as one of the key delivery mechanisms under the European Regional Development Fund Strategic Intervention: ‘The Resource Efficient Circular Economy Accelerator Programme’. It is the first fund of its type in Scotland – focussed on supporting Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to commercialise innovative technologies and processes which help to accelerate a circular economy and is administered by Zero Waste Scotland.
 
Zero Waste Scotland works with SMEs to raise awareness of circular economy principles and to help them to develop potential opportunities. Innovations in the circular economy tend to be complex, requiring collaboration with a number of partners, are generally long-term in nature and potentially risky for SMEs to implement. For this reason, the fund runs in conjunction with Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy Business Support service, which aims to provide advice to SMEs, helping them to identify and develop potential opportunities. The support service is currently supporting over 100 SMEs.  
 
The Circular Economy Investment Fund has a 2-stage application process designed to provide a timely review of the scope and eligibility of applications before applicants spend significant time on developing full applications. This allows feedback to be given to potential applicants, as well as referrals to complementary support services, where required. At the second stage, the nature of applications often lead to technical and commercial queries by the assessment panel, which can result in applications being turned-down or delayed while the queries are addressed, and this has contributed to fewer payments being made in the first two years of the fund.
 
Zero Waste Scotland continues to evaluate and improve its fund processes based on experience and to support SMEs to make successful applications. This has included the introduction of a ‘Circular Economy Development grant’ mechanism to provide a bridge between SMEs supported under the Circular Economy Business Support service and the fund, which can provide targeted funding to help strengthen certain elements of a business case (e.g. market appraisals) prior to application.