Local Enterprise Office Feasibility Study Grant

The Feasibility Study Grant helps a micro-enterprise research whether a new product, service or market is viable before committing capital. It typically covers up to 50% of eligible research cost, commonly to a ceiling of a fixed quote, though both the rate and the ceiling vary by Local Enterprise Office and region. Micro-enterprises with a credible new idea that needs validating before investment.

What this scheme funds

Funding to test whether a new product, market or model is viable — research first, capital later.

  • Market research and market testing
  • Technical and product feasibility work
  • Prototype development in some cases
  • Consultancy fees related to the study
  • Travel directly related to market research, subject to limits

What it does not fund

These costs are routinely ruled ineligible under this scheme.

  • Implementation of the idea once proven
  • Ordinary marketing activity
  • Costs incurred before application
  • Studies with no clear decision to be made at the end

Who is eligible

Eligibility is decided by Local Enterprise Office, not by Digital Bridge.

  • Micro-enterprise with 10 or fewer employees, or a promoter about to start one
  • The study addresses a genuine, stated commercial unknown
  • Eligible sector under your LEO's rules
  • Tax compliant

How to apply

Typical end-to-end timeline: Four to eight weeks to approval in most offices, with the study itself usually running three to eight weeks after that.

  • Write down the specific question the study will answer
  • Discuss with your Local Enterprise Office adviser
  • Get a written proposal and fixed quotation from the researcher or consultant
  • Submit the application before any work starts
  • Complete the study and claim against the letter of offer

Evidence you will need

Applications are usually delayed by missing paperwork rather than by weak projects.

  • Written scope stating the unknown and the decision it informs
  • Consultant proposal and quotation
  • Company details and tax clearance
  • On claim: the completed study and paid invoices

Why applications get rejected

The recurring reasons assessors give under this scheme.

  • The study reads as marketing rather than research
  • No decision hinges on the outcome
  • Work already commenced

What Digital Bridge delivers under this scheme

Illustrative net cost applies the published rate (Typically up to 50% of eligible cost (higher in some regions)) to our published engagement bands. It is arithmetic, not an offer of funding.

  • Digital feasibility and technical discovery report — list from €2,500, illustrative net cost ≈ a fixed quote at a 50% rate, if approved as an eligible cost

Who decides this grant, and what we are responsible for

Local Enterprise Office decides eligibility, approval and payment under this scheme. Digital Bridge supplies the work and the documentation an assessor asks for from the supplier side.

  • Digital Bridge does not administer, assess, approve, pay or appeal any grant. Every decision is made by the funding body named on the scheme, under its own published rules.
  • This section is general information, not financial, tax, legal or grant-writing advice. It is not an application, a pre-approval, or any form of assurance that you will be funded.
  • Scheme rates, ceilings and eligibility change without notice and several supports are administered locally, so your Local Enterprise Office or agency may apply different rules to the ones published here. Confirm everything with the funder in writing before you commit.
  • Our questionnaire is a deterministic guide based only on the answers you give. It cannot see your accounts, your sector classification, your state-aid position or your previous awards, so it can suggest a scheme you are ultimately found ineligible for.
  • If an application is refused, delayed, reduced or clawed back, our fees for work you have instructed remain payable. We recommend you do not instruct chargeable work until your funder confirms in writing what it will support.
  • Costs incurred before a funder receives your application are almost always ineligible. Timing is your responsibility, and we will always tell you when we think you should wait.

How the LEO Feasibility Study works in practice

A feasibility grant funds finding out whether an idea works, and it is the cheapest mistake-avoidance mechanism in the Irish support system. Market research, prototyping, technical trials and consultancy all sit within scope. The uncomfortable part is that a feasibility study is allowed to conclude no. Applications that describe a study whose conclusion is obviously predetermined read badly, because the whole point is to test an assumption before capital is committed. Sector and stage restrictions from the wider Local Enterprise Office rules still apply, and the study must be genuinely about a new product, service or market rather than about routine business planning the company should be doing anyway.

What we do as the supplier on the quote

On the technical side of a feasibility study our job is to answer a question, not to sell what comes after it. A useful technical feasibility scope names the assumptions being tested — whether the data exists, whether the integration is possible, whether the throughput is achievable — and states what evidence will settle each one. We build the smallest thing that answers the question and we write up the negative findings as carefully as the positive ones. If the study says the idea does not stand up, the company has spent a small amount to avoid a large one, and that is a successful outcome for the scheme.

Can it fund a software or AI feasibility study?

Where the technical viability of the idea is the genuine unknown, yes, offices commonly accept it. State the unknown explicitly — 'can our data support automated quoting' is fundable, 'we want a new website' is not.

Is the ceiling the same in every county?

No. Feasibility ceilings and rates are set regionally and have differed between offices, including higher limits in some border and western regions. Confirm your own office's current figure before you plan the budget.

What happens if the feasibility study finds the idea is not viable?

That is a legitimate result and does not make the funding wasted. Offices understand that feasibility work exists to de-risk decisions. Document the finding properly — it also strengthens your credibility on any future application to the same office.

Source and last review

Scheme parameters checked against Local Enterprise Office — Financial Supports (https://www.localenterprise.ie/Discover-Business-Supports/Financial-Supports/) on 2026-08-21. Reviewed quarterly. Next scheduled review: November 2026. Digital Bridge is a supplier, not the awarding body. Eligibility, approval and payment are decided solely by the funding body named on each scheme. Figures below are the published scheme parameters as at the review date shown, and net costs are arithmetic illustrations of the published rate applied to our published prices. Always confirm current rules with the funder before you commit to any spend, because expenditure incurred before an application is received is almost always ineligible.

Who has a genuine feasibility question worth funding?

This grant suits a micro-enterprise with a specific, unresolved commercial or technical unknown that needs answering before capital is committed — whether a new product will sell, whether a new market exists, whether a technical approach will actually work. Support typically runs up to 50% of eligible cost, commonly to a fixed quote ceiling, though both figures vary by Local Enterprise Office and region, so confirm your own office's current terms rather than assuming a national standard. It covers market research, technical feasibility work, some prototype development and related consultancy. Applications most often stall because the proposal reads as marketing activity rather than genuine research, or because no real decision actually hinges on the study's outcome — if the company would proceed regardless of what the study finds, it is not a feasibility study in the scheme's sense. Write down the specific unknown and the decision it will inform before approaching your adviser, and get a written proposal and fixed quotation from whoever will carry out the study before applying.

How does a technical feasibility study map to a Digital Bridge project?

Where the genuine unknown is technical — for example, whether a company's existing data can support automated quoting, or whether a proposed AI workflow is viable given the data and systems already in place — a feasibility study can fund a discovery and technical report from Digital Bridge, typically starting from €4,500, before any build is committed to. The critical framing point is stating the unknown explicitly in the application: “can our data support automated quoting” is fundable as feasibility, while “we want a new website” is not, because the latter has no open question attached to it. We scope this kind of engagement as an assessment with a written report and costed options at the end, deliberately kept separate from any implementation quote, so the study reads as open-ended research rather than pre-committed procurement. If the study concludes the idea is not viable, that is a legitimate and reportable outcome, not a failure of the engagement. Confirm your Local Enterprise Office's current ceiling and rate before budgeting, since these are set regionally and the decision to fund rests with that office alone.

How we decide what to quote for Leo Feasibility Study Grant

Digital Bridge delivers this work from Gorey Business Park in County Wexford on a fixed written scope — one price, one delivery date — and the client owns the finished work outright. The Feasibility Study Grant helps a micro-enterprise research whether a new product, service or market is viable before committing capital. Before a figure is given, four questions are answered in order, and a named person signs the scope off — it is never generated automatically.

  1. Is this the right job at all? We look at what you already have online, whether the domain and Google Business Profile are in your own name, and what Leo Feasibility Study Grant customers currently ask you for. If a repair or a single page would solve it, we quote that instead.
  2. What does the work have to achieve first? The scope is written around one outcome — enquiries, bookings, orders or credibility — and anything else is listed as optional so it can be dropped without renegotiating.
  3. What will it cost and when will it be live? Page count, content readiness, integrations and whether photography or copy still has to be produced set the price and the date, both fixed in writing before work starts.
  4. How will people in Leo Feasibility Study Grant find it afterwards? Local search setup is included in a build; ongoing SEO is a separate optional retainer you can start or stop with notice.

Checkable facts behind this Leo Feasibility Study Grant page

Author and reviewer: Joey Bray, founder of Digital Bridge, building and maintaining Irish business websites since 2016. Studio address: Gorey Business Park, Gorey, Co. Wexford. Phone: 085 224 1848. Every claim below can be checked before you speak to us.

  • Published starting prices, not estimates released after a sales call — see the pricing page for the full ladder.
  • Live client sites you can open and test yourself are listed in the work section.
  • One contact from first call to launch, rather than an account handler relaying messages.
  • A plain-text mirror of this page is published for AI assistants at the same path with a .md extension.