The Government has just announced a new round of itsRegional Growth Fund worth £350m. The fund, which is designed to boost the growth of the private sector, is aimed at large-scale projects that have the potential to create new jobs.

The Regional Growth Fund (RGF) is being made available to business to spend on projects such as capital investment, development and training. Money is being offered for programmes that lever private sector investment and must attract private funding to match the public funding that the fund provides.

Private sector organisations are encouraged to bid for the fund either individually, or in partnership with other private or public sector organisations. Universities and charities are also invited to apply to bid for projects or programmes under the scheme.

So far the Government has made available £2.5bn in earlier rounds of the fund. Previous bids have attracted up to £14.5bn of private funding, and have created and protected up to 600,000 jobs.

Round 4 of the fund will provide a mixture of direct support for private sector investments and private public partnerships in the form of grants, loans and loan guarantees. To qualify for the fund, bids need to show that project plans are already in place and and that those projects will create new jobs. Bids need to be a minimum of £1m. The deadline for applications is 12 midday on 20 March 2013. Successful bidders will be required to make use of RGF funding by 31 March 2016

For more information about RGF and details on how to apply, click here.