Slide 1 Hello Introduce Sam Masson & Bridget Trussell, Project Development & Support Officers for the Cairngorms LEADER team. Cairngorms LEADER covers those living and working within the Cairngorms National Park.

What is LEADER? LEADER is a EU Funded Grants Programme which sits under the Scottish Rural Development Programme in Scotland It will last for 5 years 2014-2020 Cairngorms LEADER has an allocation of approx £3 million to spend The Cairngorms Local Action Group will use a Local Development Strategy agreed by SG to administer the allocation Slide 2 LEADER is a way of supporting rural development in communities in rural areas. It is about building networks, knowledge and skills within communities by encouraging you to work together on local projects. In the last programme Cairngorms LAG supported approximately 250 small projects. 2/3 rds of these projects had a spend of less than 20K. In this new programme we are striving to invest in a smaller no of projects that are larger, more ambitious and that work in partnership. If your project idea is for those living or working within the Cairngorms National Park you can attend our workshop and learn about our Local Development Strategy. We will take you through the funding requirements and help you go see how your project could fit within our strategy. By the end of our workshop you should have enough information to make a first stage application to us - an Expression of Interest.