The 2023 Small Business Saturday tour, investments in AI to support the transport, construction agriculture and creative industries, changes to the student finance system plus the latest webinar dates from HMRC
Small Business Saturday – “The Tour 2023”
The iconic Small Business Saturday UK Tour is back again this November.
The countdown to Small Business Saturday is officially on, as ‘The Tour’ returns to spotlight and supports small businesses all over the country.
Once again supported by BT Skills for Tomorrow, ‘The Tour’ will call at twenty threedifferent towns and cities across the UK throughout November, visiting small businesses and shining a light on their contribution to the UK economy and local communities.
It will also offer a jam-packed free daily programme of online events – including workshops, webinars, mentoring and inspiring entrepreneurial stories – open to all small businesses.
Kicking off on Monday 30th October, The Tour will travel across the UK for fiveweeks and make use of electric vehicles – including a state-of-the-art eco-friendly electric bike from Stirling Eco – to limit emissions and reflect the sustainable switches many small business owners are making as part of their vital role in the race to net zero.
See: Small Business Saturday UK | Another year making a Big Difference!
AI solutions to improve productivity in key sectors
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £32 million in innovation projects to support the development and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions in the priority sectors of:
- Transport,
- Construction,
- Agriculture, and
- creative industries.
Your project can focus on one or more of the following:
- data driven decision making,
- automation of administrative tasks,
- project management optimization,
- supply chain optimisation and forecast models,
- waste management,
- intellectual property (IP) management, and
- design.
The competition is split into two strands, offering support to:
- single entities, and
- collaborative R&D projects.
For both strands, Innovate UK will fund industrial research projects and experimental development projects, as defined in the guidance on categories of research.
In terms of project sizes, the total grant funding request for single entities must be up to £100,000. If you’re applying for collaborative R&D funding, your project’s total grant funding request must be between £700,000 and £1.2 million.
This competition opens on Wednesday 27 September. The deadline for applications to both strands is 11am on Wednesday 8 November 2023.
Potential applicants can join Innovate UK’s briefing event on Friday 29 September 2023 to find out more about eligibility, the application process, and securing funding for impactful AI initiatives.
Student finance bill becomes law
New measures have been enshrined in law that will transform the student finance system, allowing colleges and universities to charge different fees for different courses for the first time and opening up opportunities for adults to study in a way that works for them.
The Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) (formerly the Lifelong Loan Entitlement) will give all adults from 2025 access to loans, worth up to £37,000 in today’s fees, that they can use flexibly over their working lives to upskill or retrain.
The LLE will mean people will be able to take out a student loan to pay for full-time courses such as university degrees or Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs), as well as for some individual modules of courses.
See: Transformative student finance bill becomes law – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Latest HMRC Employer webinars
Listed below are a number of live HMRC webinars that will help employers with payroll. The webinars are free and last around an hour.
Expenses and benefits for your employees – trivial benefits
Tue 31 Oct at 1:45pm
Salaried hours work and the National Minimum Wage
Tue 26 Sep at 1:00pm
Expenses and benefits for your employees – company cars, vans, and fuel
Tue 10 Oct at 11:45am
Expenses and benefits for your employees – if your employees have more than one workplace
Thu 12 Oct at 9:45am
Taxing employees’ benefits and expenses through your payroll
Mon 16 Oct at 11:45am
Employer filing obligations
Tue 17 Oct at 9:45am
Expenses and benefits for your employees – social functions and parties
Mon 23 Oct at 11:45am
Wed 1 Nov at 11:45am
Expenses and benefits for your employees – travel
Thu 2 Nov at 11:45am
Expenses and benefits for your employees – phones, internet, and homeworking
Wed 8 Nov at 1:45pm
Getting payroll information right
Mon 27 Nov at 9:45am