Tees Valley digital creators offered £250 business-development grants

Digital creators, freelancers and small creative businesses across all five Tees Valley boroughs can apply for grants of up to £250 for practical business development work.

What the grant can cover

North East Screen opened the Tees Valley REACH funding round on 20 October. The money can pay for marketing, public relations and promotional activity, as well as legal, accountancy or wider business advice. Applicants can also propose work on new digital content ideas, including sizzle reels, pitch decks and other pitching materials.

Training is included too. Course fees, continuing professional development and other skills activity may be eligible where an applicant can show how the spending will strengthen their business or creative practice. North East Screen says it will consider other business-development activity on the same basis, so the published list is not exhaustive.

Who can apply

The call is open to digital content creators, businesses and freelancers based in Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland or Stockton-on-Tees. No match funding is required, meaning applicants do not have to put an equivalent amount of their own money into the proposal.

The grant is deliberately small, with a maximum award of £250. It is therefore best suited to a defined piece of work rather than a major production budget. General business overheads and capital purchases are excluded. Applicants must explain how their proposal will support professional or business development, then provide evidence of the activity and its outcomes after it is completed.

Dates and practical details

Applications close on Monday 16 November 2026. Successful applicants must complete funded activity by 28 February 2027. The application is made through an online Microsoft form linked from North East Screen’s announcement.

The published guidance does not set out a separate expression-of-interest stage. Creators should therefore use the application to connect the proposed cost directly to a useful result, whether that is stronger presentation material, new knowledge or specialist advice. Keeping the activity tightly defined should also make the required evidence easier to gather when the work is finished.

Anyone uncertain about eligibility can contact the development team at development@northeastscreen.org before applying. The organisation has not stated how many grants are available or the total value of this funding round, so applicants should not assume that every eligible request will receive support.

Why this matters locally

A modest grant can still remove a specific barrier for a freelancer or early-stage creative business. It could cover a short course, professional advice or the materials needed to present an idea clearly to a commissioner or partner. The scheme is available across the whole Tees Valley rather than being restricted to one town.

North East Screen delivers screen and wider creative-industry development across the North East and Tees Valley, with support from the Tees Valley Combined Authority and the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority. This application round is a practical, time-limited part of that wider remit. The key test for applicants is not the size of their idea, but whether the proposed spending has a clear professional purpose and can be evidenced by the February completion date.