Your full application will be assessed by an experienced approved appraiser selected by the Loddon and Test Local Action Group. The appraiser will look at whether the project is relevant and meets our local priorities as well as the six National Priorities set by DEFRA. Your project will be assessed for whether it will deliver the outcomes we expect, how capable your organisation is of carrying out the project, how well planned it is, whether it meets sustainability objectives and whether we think it is financially viable. We will look at whether your project shows overall value for money for the proposals and what you expect to achieve, and we will look at whether your project looks sustainable in the long term. We will also ensure that supporting your project won’t harm other similar businesses. Please click on the following link for further information on the assessment criteria.
Once your application has been appraised, it will then be checked by the Rural Delivery Team at the Rural Payments Agency to ensure it meets LEADER objectives and eligibility. It will then go to the next Decision Making Panel. The panel will comprise a minimum of four people who will make the final decision. The panel will be a selection of members of the Loddon and Test Local Action Group. They will represent sectors relevant to your application, such as farming, forestry, community, business etc, so that they have the experience and knowledge required to make a decision.
From submission of your application, assessment can take between 8 and 16 weeks, depending on the size of your project. For more detail on timescales, see our relevant section on this.
After assessment at the Decision Making Panel, the Local Action Group will decide on whether or not to award funding. Should you be successful, you will be issued a contract which you will need to sign. Once this has been signed and returned to us, you can begin your project.
Once you have received your contract, we suggest you go to our Running Your Project section of this website, to look at how things work from here.