Department for Business and Trade
About This Funder
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT), established in 2023, drives UK economic growth by making the nation the world's best place for business, fostering investment, exports, and prosperity through job creation and opportunity expansion across all regions. Core values emphasize competitive markets, consumer protection, free trade, economic security, and supply chain resilience, with a practical, data-driven philosophy promoting pro-enterprise regulation, modern Industrial Strategy, responsive Trade Strategy, and Small Business Plan. DBT's impact approach catalyses systemic change via scalable interventions unlocking market access, innovation, skills development, and resilient enterprise infrastructure, partnering with businesses for high-quality jobs and nationwide economic renewal rather than traditional charity core funding.
DBT prioritizes UK-based businesses of all sizes, with dedicated support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), entrepreneurs, scale-ups, industry clusters, and rural enterprises including local pubs expanding community services. Key activities fund export market expansion, inward investment attraction, business innovation, and growth across advanced manufacturing, life sciences, digital industries, retail, hospitality, clean energy, and professional services. Interventions include regulatory barrier removal, trade readiness training, R&D grants, growth financing, export finance via UK Export Finance, sectoral trade deals, supply chain resilience building, employment skills enhancement, and international collaborations enabling job creation, outward direct investment, and high-growth sector development. They address economic barriers like unfair trade practices, market access limitations, and innovation constraints, seeking solutions through proactive export wins, investment councils, and SME insurance to drive prosperity, employability support, and local economic empowerment.
DBT excludes core charity funding, individual consumer grants, or non-business interventions, focusing instead on strategic enablers of enterprise rather than direct social services like mental health counselling or disability respite care. Distinctive priorities target SMEs facing export barriers, rural businesses combating isolation, entrepreneurs in high-growth sectors, and scale-ups needing trade readiness, with a government-led, sector-specific ethos valuing evidence-based industrial renewal, global trade defence, and UK-wide job opportunities over grassroots social welfare or community cohesion projects alone.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How much funding does Department for Business and Trade provide?
Department for Business and Trade typically provides grants ranging from From £10,000.
Where does Department for Business and Trade fund charities?
Department for Business and Trade funds charities operating in UK.
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