What is the grant available for?
DCMS has announced an additional £5 million for the UK Games Fund as part of the Creative Industries Sector Vision – a joint plan between Government and industry to drive growth, build talent and develop skills across the creative sectors.
This new funding will offer £50,000 – £150,000 commercial games-for-entertainment content grants.
They intend to operate a rolling deadline, however they may close their application portal periodically for ten to fourteen days whilst they review batches of applications, re-opening as soon as possible. They also have fixed allocations of funding to administer within different financial years so they encourage early applications.
You should make your application as soon as possible.
If you have already had funding from them, it doesn’t rule you out from applying. They will expect you to provide a logical case that demonstrates a positive outcome from their previous grant and how that part of the journey has contributed to the present application.
Preferences:
- They normally expect companies to not be a recently established start-up, or formed for the purposes of securing this grant. A start-up may be considered where supported by the founders’ effective articulation of the structural rationale as above alongside an immediate publishing opportunity secured because of founder track record.
- Some PAYE employees already onboard, in addition to the founding director/s.
- If previously funded by UKGTF, being able to demonstrate positive business progress as a result of the earlier support.
- Prior founder(s) track record having taken games through to completion and shipping.
- A positive bias towards employed staff rather than contracting in the planned development approach.
- Opportunities for networking/learning between team members – understanding this will be proportionate to the circumstances of the applicant’s on-site or remote working arrangements.
- Positive impacts on under-representation at a company level arising from the planned hires and a longer-term commitment to addressing any under-representation in the development team. See guidance here.
- Project IP originated and developed by the applicant.
- Use of this funding early / mid development cycle.
- Funding to be spent over a 6–12 month period commencing within four weeks of offer, but applications outside this range will be considered. Financial year end issues may need to be managed in project plans and they will advise if that is the case.
In summary:
- Successful grantees will receive full payment of grant in advance of commencement, usually within four weeks of contract completion.
- Grantees will be required to submit monthly update reports on progress.
- The final report will also include an impact survey and an accountant-certified financial report covering all project spend, both of which are compulsory.
- They are intending that the content fund intervention will help to develop the field of ‘foundership’ in the indie games sector and they'll be directing some of their content fund monitoring and community engagement towards this aim.
- An external evaluation of the content fund will run in parallel and you will be required to engage with the evaluation contractor at mutually convenient points.
- The extent to which any tax reliefs or expenditure credits are claimable or otherwise on the portion of your project expenditure that is fully funded by them may vary according to the interpretation of eligible expenses incurred, the grantee company tax position and/or other variables outside their control. You should seek advice from your professional adviser in this regard.
Any eligibility criteria
Requirements:
- UK registered SME with PAYE employees engaged in games development work in the UK,
- Ownership explicitly set out and with UK-based founder-director/s as significant shareholder/s,
- The total previous grant and other subsidies not exceeding £315,000* over a three-year fiscal period (including any prior funding from us) in order to comply with UK subsidy control legislation. This funding is being operated within the terms of the minimum financial assistance (MFA) exemption*
- Not presently facing any acute working capital challenges or liabilities that put the business under any unusual levels of risk, and
- The founders able to fully articulate the rationale for all structural aspects of the business and the growth strategy in the context of building and growing a financially-sustainable UK-based games development studio and growing PAYE employment, particularly where there are any non-standard business configurations such as dispersed teams / high levels of contracting.
- Funding being required to support a mix of existing and/or new employees, alongside a lesser proportion of contracting, and
- A clear explanation of the development approach in terms of the planned physical location/s of work in the UK and access to talent.
- Prototype in place,
- IP owned by the applicant or licensed on terms that are aligned with the project’s long-term requirements,
- Your project must not include gambling elements or mechanisms which could be perceived as such, or any content that we deem to be potentially reputationally damaging (solely at our discretion),
- A primary focus of the applicant’s current development portfolio,
- Commercial games for entertainment focus with potential to secure a commercial audience at scale,
- Eligible costs are staff and contractor costs for hands-on development activity,
- Ineligible projects include non-commercial, non-entertainment games, student projects/graduation works, games incapable of obtaining a PEGI rating, corporate/marketing functions (etc),
- Evidence of understanding of the target audience and plans to access that audience,
- A credible funding rationale in terms of scale of the request for grant funding in the context of company finances, and
- Ability to demonstrate additionality of this funding.
How to apply for the grant?
Please check application dates on the fund website Here.
