On 2 November Derek Mackay, Scottish Government Finance Secretary, announced that he will be 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.

Clarity around some aspects of the HM Treasury guarantee is being sought. The Scottish Government news release provides you with the information currently available.

LEADER is delivered under Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) which is Pillar 2 of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Pillar 2 scheme. SRDP is mentioned in the background note of the release.

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

Angus LEADER's first email newsletter has information on projects part-funded by the programme so far, how to apply, cooperation developments and their work supporting the development of a rural strategy for the Borjormi, Georgia.

You can sign up for the newsletter on the Angus LEADER Facebook page.

Fife LEADER have a new Project Coordinator in place. Catharine Idle joined the team at the end of August and has been working through all things LEADER and LARCs.

Fife have approved three projects and are working through eight other applications to take to the next LAG meeting for assessment and potential approval.

Their local ‘Meet the Funders’ event has led to an increase in interest and enquiries from eligible areas right across Fife.

Torfaen Local Action Group in Wales are looking for partners for the first steps of a transnational capacity-building network for common land graziers. A transnational workshop in Wales will act as a focus for the initial development work and formulate an action plan for the next two years, including further transnational cooperation projects.

Representatives from Moray LEADER, Angus LEADER and Scottish Government visited the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI) Ideas Lab on 13 October.

The Ideas Lab assists the development of new low carbon products and services by providing mentoring, support and world class accommodation to help entrepreneurs test and commercialise their ideas. 

We heard about the impressive achievements of the enterprises supported through Ideas Lab since 2014. One of the current residents told us about their work on an innovative idea to recycle coffee cups into ‘biochar’, which can be used to grow food and lock in carbon. 

We explored a number of ideas around potential collaboration between ECCI and LEADER areas and everyone left with plenty of food for thought. If your LAG wants to find out whether any of the ideas identified could be of interest for your area, please email jody@ruralnetwork.scot.

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) is inviting people, communities, schools, non-governmental organisations and businesses, living and working on the Scottish coast, to help launch the Blue New Deal – a major new action plan for the future of coastal communities in the UK.

NEF are asking people to record 60-90 seconds of video saying why UK seas matter to you and to the economic sustainability of your town/community. Ideally they need the videos by 10 November 2016.

The October edition of the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) newsletter has information on LEADER transnational cooperation initiatives, a new projects database available on the ENRD website and events taking place across Europe.

FARNET - the European Fisheries Area Network - has published a guide on 'Results-orientated CLLD in fisheries areas', which may also be of interest to Local Action Groups.

The document has six practical factsheets including real-life examples, designed to help Fisheries Local Action Groups ensure better results through developing strategic objectives, selecting indicators and setting targets, collecting data and managing information, and adopting a results-oriented approach in all activities of the FLAG.