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Tag Archives: SME

EU research funding for Shannon SME

A SHANNON company is set to receive a share of €10 million in funding from the EU’s scientific research fund. AltraTech has been named among five small Irish companies with big ideas awarded with the funding to help get their ideas to market. The company has developed a portable battery-operated kit for the quick detection of the HIV virus. It is expected that the inexpensive, disposable kit could dramatically improve HIV management worldwide. The five Irish SMEs will receive EU grants of up to €2.5 million each from the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 2 funding. The grant is for innovative small firms to get ideas from the lab to the market and help generate growth and jobs in Europe. Through the funding, the SMEs can finance innovation activities such as demonstration, testing, piloting, scaling up and miniaturisation, in addition to developing a mature business plan for their product. The companies involved in the projects will also benefit from 12 …

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Ennis Chamber on the trail of SME finance

A NEWLY announced €50 million loan facility for the SME sector will allow businesses to grow, an Ennis business representative group has said. The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland has announced that under the terms of the deal, SMEs will be able to access more and lower-cost funding for equipment, machinery and vehicles through Finance Ireland, a Dublin-based specialist lender. It is understood the preferential interest rates will be typically 2% lower than current market rates. Ennis Chamber CEO, Rita McInerney said, “As a business representative organisation, the chamber welcomes any initiative that will ensure access to finance for SMEs, who are the backbone of the Irish economy, especially in rural Ireland. “SMEs employ approximately 70% of the people working in this country and make up over 99% of all businesses. It has been particularly challenging in recent years for SMEs to access finance, therefore this fund will make it more affordable for businesses to grow as well as increasing …

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Carey calls for SME support awareness

Arising from the low take-up of Government supports, a major awareness campaign is to be launched in Clare to inform SMEs of the programmes in place to assist start-up businesses. And local Dáil Deputy, Joe Carey has claimed the campaign is warranted as there are 80 Government supported programmes in place to support SMEs but “most people don’t know about these schemes and there is a very low take-up rate”. “With SMEs and regional growth taking a central focus in this year’s Action Plan for Jobs, we need to ensure that all existing businesses and start-ups in Clare are aware of the support on offer”, he added. The awareness campaign will consist of national and local radio advertising, online advertisements and the launch of a new website. “SMEs employ 650,000 people in Ireland, and start-ups account for two thirds of all new jobs created. SMEs are hugely important to local business life in Clare and I would urge anyone involved …

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ISME focus on debt restructuring

ISME, the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association, has launched its nationwide SME Debt Restructuring seminars to be held in early September. The association has called on the Irish banks to remember that the reason for the taxpayer bailing them out was so that they in turn would be in a better position to assist vulnerable SMEs to trade profitably again. The free seminar for businesses in the Mid-West will be held in the Strand Hotel, Limerick on Thursday, September 4. At the launch the ISME CEO, Mark Fielding stated, “While the scale of the issues and the competing nature of the demands in terms of personal debts, personal investments and business needs have resulted in some paralysis, SMEs are negotiating solutions with their banks and coming out of the process with integrated and well thought out evaluations and plans to allow them continue to trade”. “The purpose of the seminars is to demonstrate to business owners that despite the severe pressure …

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