Technical Assistance for Micro Exporters (TAME)

Technical Assistance for Micro Exporters co-funds up to 50% of the cost of exploring and entering new export markets, to a maximum of a fixed quote. Eligible costs typically include trade fair participation, international marketing material, export-focused website work, translation and market research for a market you do not yet sell into. Micro-enterprises selling only in Ireland that want to test an overseas market.

What this scheme funds

Up to a fixed quote at 50% toward breaking into a new export market for the first time.

  • Trade fair and exhibition participation costs
  • Investigation of new markets, including market research
  • International marketing material and packaging
  • Website internationalisation and translation for export markets
  • Export-related consultancy

What it does not fund

These costs are routinely ruled ineligible under this scheme.

  • Markets you already sell into
  • General domestic marketing
  • Staff salaries
  • Costs incurred before approval

Who is eligible

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

  • Micro-enterprise with 10 or fewer employees
  • Currently exporting little or nothing to the target market
  • In an eligible sector
  • Tax compliant

How to apply

Typical end-to-end timeline: Usually three to six weeks to a decision. Apply well in advance of any trade fair deadline, because stand deposits paid early are commonly ruled ineligible.

  • Identify the specific target market and why it is credible
  • Contact your Local Enterprise Office
  • Get quotations for the eligible costs
  • Apply before booking the stand or commissioning the work
  • Claim after the activity with paid invoices and evidence of participation

Evidence you will need

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

  • Target market rationale
  • Quotations for each cost line
  • Proof of attendance or delivery on claim
  • Paid invoices and bank evidence

Why applications get rejected

The recurring reasons assessors give under this scheme.

  • Deposit already paid
  • Market is one the applicant already trades in
  • Costs are general marketing rather than export-specific

What Digital Bridge delivers under this scheme

Illustrative net cost applies the published rate (Up to 50% of eligible cost) to our published engagement bands. It is arithmetic, not an offer of funding.

  • Multilingual export-ready website and international SEO — list from €2,500, illustrative net cost Up to a fixed quote grant support at 50%, if approved

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 TAME Export Grant works in practice

The Technical Assistance for Micro Exporters grant is narrow and deliberately so: it exists to help very small firms take a first step into a new export market. Eligible costs cluster around market investigation, trade fair participation, foreign-language materials and export-facing website work. The restriction that surprises applicants is that the market must be new to the business — support is not intended to subsidise selling more into a market you already serve. Award sizes are modest by design, which makes this a scheme where the paperwork can outweigh the benefit if the project is trivial. It works best as one funded component of an export push the company is committed to regardless.

What we do as the supplier on the quote

The export-related digital work we are typically asked to quote is a localised site version, market-specific landing content, or currency, tax and shipping handling for a target country. We price those as discrete items because only the export-facing element is likely to be eligible, and a blended quote for a whole website rebuild makes the eligible portion impossible to isolate. Language is the recurring trap: machine translation presented as localisation reads badly to the target market and, in our view, undermines the purpose of the grant. Budget for a human reviewer who actually trades in that market.

Does translating my website qualify?

Website internationalisation and translation aimed at a specific new export market is commonly eligible. Translating a domestic site with no export plan behind it is not.

Is €2,500 the grant or the project cost?

a fixed quote is the maximum grant, so a fully funded application implies eligible costs of at least a fixed quote at the 50% rate.

Does translating our existing website qualify?

Foreign-language material for a new target market is commonly within scope, but eligibility depends on the market being new to the business and on your office's current rules. Ask before commissioning translation, since retrospective approval is not the norm.

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 is TAME designed for, and where does it stop being eligible?

Technical Assistance for Micro Exporters suits a micro-enterprise currently selling little or nothing into a specific market it wants to test, using the grant's up to 50% support to a maximum of a fixed quote toward trade fair participation, market research, international marketing material, translation and export-focused website work. It does not cover markets the business already sells into, general domestic marketing, staff salaries, or any cost incurred before approval. The single most common reason applications fail is a deposit or booking paid before the application is submitted — trade fair stand deposits in particular are frequently paid early by applicants keen to secure a spot, and this routinely disqualifies that cost. Identify the specific target market and articulate why it is credible before contacting your Local Enterprise Office, get written quotations for the eligible cost lines, and apply well ahead of any trade fair deadline so the approval process does not collide with a booking window.

Does website translation and internationalisation genuinely qualify?

Website internationalisation and translation aimed specifically at entering a named new export market is commonly treated as eligible under this scheme, whereas translating an existing domestic site with no defined export plan attached to it is not. The distinction an assessor applies is whether the cost exists specifically because of the new-market push, so the application and the supplier quote should frame the work in those terms rather than as a general site update. A Digital Bridge quote for this kind of project, for example multilingual site work and international SEO starting from €2,500, should name the target market explicitly and separate the export-specific elements from any unrelated domestic work on the same site. Bear in mind that a fixed quote is the maximum grant, not the maximum project cost, so a fully funded application implies eligible costs of at least a fixed quote at the published 50% rate. Claim after the activity is complete, with paid invoices and proof of participation or delivery; approval and payment decisions rest solely with the Local Enterprise Office.

How we decide what to quote for Leo Technical Assistance Micro Exporters

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. Technical Assistance for Micro Exporters co-funds up to 50% of the cost of exploring and entering new export markets, to a maximum of a fixed quote. 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 Technical Assistance Micro Exporters 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 Technical Assistance Micro Exporters 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 Technical Assistance Micro Exporters 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.