We're looking for volunteers to help staff the Scottish LEADER Programme stand at the Gathering 2017.

The event takes place at the SECC in Glasgow on 22 & 23 February. It's a great opportunity to promote the LEADER programme to more than 3,000 people involved with the third sector, including social enterprises.

The Scottish Rural Network has covered the cost of the exhibition stand and will also help to provide materials for the stand, but we need your help to staff the stand.

If you are interested in being involved and can provide one (or more) members of staff for the stand, please email norette@ruralnetwork.scot by 20 January. If you could give us an indication of which day(s) your staff can attend, that would be really useful. 

We are hoping to organise a rota so that the volunteers will also have some free time and the opportunity to attend some of the excellent free talks and workshops on offer.

Updated Local Action Group (LAG) guidance and applicant guidance was issue on 8 December. It is hoped updated guidance, including cooperation, will be issued by the end of the year but this is subject to Accountable Bodies consensus on the funding agreement. This is the document that agrees the LAG and Accountable Body funding split.

The first tranche of Claims Training has now been completed with 16 of 21 LAGs trained (at least one staff member trained per Local Action Group) and 26 attendees.

New training dates for early in the New Year have been circulated and there will also be a Training Environment created for refresher training or to aid new staff.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Constitution announced earlier this month that the Scottish Government is passing on, in full, the European Union (EU) funding guarantees that have been offered by the UK Government, providing certainty for over £700 million of EU funding for Scotland.

Fergus Ewing has now written to rural stakeholders to confirm this applies to Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding.

A copy of his letter can be found on the Rural Payments and Services website.

You can contact the LEADER team by emailing Leader.Queries@gov.scot or calling 0131 244 9924.

Highland LEADER are encouraging potential applicants to come forward with their project ideas. The programme has awarded funding to four projects so far including funding to Fyrish Gymnastics club for new equipment and Lochcarron Community Development Company for a two-year project at Kirkton Woodlands.

Six projects to benefit Orkney's communities and economy have secured support from the latest rounds of Orkney LEADER funding.

So far, the current Orkney LEADER programme has awarded grant funding of over £460,000 to eight community driven, innovative projects, with a total value of over £1 million of project investment.

The Scottish Rural Network (SRN) and Funding Scotland have teamed up to launch an advanced online funding search. The SRN Funding Search is free to use and has information on over 1,000 funds. As well as searching for funding, users can also create reports, save searches and sign up for a funding e-bulletin.

We hope potential LEADER applicants will find the SRN Funding Search to be a useful tool when looking for match funding.

The service is being piloted for three months, and your feedback would be very welcome. If you have any comments, questions or ideas please email fundingscotland@scvo.org.uk.

Like VW Campervans and LEADER? Then our latest Case Study is for you! Tyne Esk LEADER have awarded funding to Jerba Campervans based in North Berwick for their Elevating Roof Workshop project. The project will help Jerba Campervans to expand their business and create new jobs.

Sarah Hyslop from Ayrshire LEADER has reported on the European Network for Rural Development seminar on 'Achieving results the CLLD way: Putting the method to work' which took place in Sweden earlier this month.

The December edition of the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) includes information on a new Local Action Group (LAG) database, the Rural Connections Autumn 2016 publication and the Improving CLLD Implementation seminar.