UKFT is pleased to announce that the Department of International Trade has agreed to a full roster of Tradeshow Access Programme (TAP) grants for 2019/20. UKFT will be able to help companies with grants of £1,200 for events in Europe and the US and, potentially, up to £1,500 in markets like China (for Intertextile Shanghai). Eligible companies should be SMEs and registered in the UK. A lifetime allocation of up to 6 grants is available to companies.

However, DIT has announced some important changes to the overall emphasis of the scheme and these will create new responsibilities and obligations for exhibitors using the scheme, as follows:

1. Under the new scheme, there is no automatic entitlement to grants. UKFT will be required by DIT to make a “business case” for each grant and companies will be expected to justify taxpayers’ investment in their business. They will have to represent a good Return on Investment (ROI) for the grant.
2. All TAP exhibitors will to provide detailed commercial information both before and after the event in order to drawdown the funding and to enable UKFT to justify grants to HM Treasury.
3. Companies will be required, as a condition of support, to include DIT/GREAT branding on their stand.

For information on grants available, please read more here.