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Porthline Digital

Funding support for digital projects

Some Highlands, Islands and Scottish businesses may be eligible for support towards digital advice, technology adoption and AI. Funding is discretionary, the funder decides, and I have no say in it.

What I can do is tell you plainly whether your project is the kind these schemes support, help shape the business case, and give you the written scope and quote an application usually needs.

Talk through a projectAbout the Workflow & Systems Review
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In short

Highlands and Islands businesses may be able to access HIE support towards digital specialist advice and technology adoption, and Scottish SMEs can access free AI adoption support through AI Scotland and The Data Lab. All of it is discretionary and subject to sector, Fair Work and quote conditions. Porthline does not decide eligibility and cannot promise you will qualify; I help with the digital scope and the business case.

Routes that may apply

Checked against the funders' own published pages in September 2026. Terms change, so treat this as a starting point and confirm the current position with the funder before planning around it.

HIE Digital Specialist Advice Grant

Support towards the cost of specialist digital advice: a feasibility study or a digital action plan, produced before you commit to a build.

  • HIE publishes this as between £2,000 (its minimum payable grant) and £5,000 towards the cost of obtaining digital specialist advice, with anything above £5,000 met by the applicant.
  • Open to organisations of any size based in the Highlands and Islands region; large enterprises may be ineligible.
  • Applicants are asked for an outline brief for the work and evidence of at least three quotes, and HIE does not recommend who to work with.
Read HIE's Digital Specialist Advice Grant page (opens in a new tab) →

HIE Digital and Technology Adoption Capital Grant

Capital support towards actually adopting the technology, once you know what you are adopting and why.

  • Assessed case by case rather than at a published fixed rate.
  • HIE recommends having a digital action plan or feasibility study in place before enquiring.
  • Applicants are asked to identify up to three eligible quotes for the work.
  • When checked in September 2026, HIE's own page said applications were paused because of high demand. Confirm the current position with HIE before planning around this grant.
Read HIE's Digital and Technology Adoption Capital Grant page (opens in a new tab) →

AI Scotland / The Data Lab

Scotland's national AI adoption support for small and medium-sized businesses, delivered with The Data Lab and the enterprise agencies.

  • Published as free, Scottish Government funded support: mentoring, workshops and help identifying and testing AI opportunities.
  • Open to small and medium-sized businesses and social enterprises in Scotland.
  • Often the sensible first step if you are exploring AI rather than committing to a build.
Read The Data Lab's AI adoption support page (opens in a new tab) →

What the conditions usually involve

None of this is unusual, but it is worth knowing before you start rather than halfway through an application.

Quotes from more than one supplier

HIE asks applicants to evidence quotes for the work: at least three for the advice grant, up to three for the capital grant. Expect to approach other suppliers as well as Porthline, and expect that to be normal rather than awkward.

Sector eligibility

HIE assesses every project case by case. Businesses operating primarily in retail, food and beverage service, personal services or business services such as legal and accountancy are considered on a case-by-case basis rather than ruled out. Accommodation run from the applicant's own home, organisations primarily core-funded by the public sector, and religious or political organisations are not eligible.

Fair Work conditions

HIE requires applicants to meet its Fair Work conditions for financial support, which cover paying the Real Living Wage, having a flexible working policy and supporting workforce development.

Schemes open, pause and close

Availability changes with demand and budget, sometimes at short notice, and a scheme that was open when you started planning may not be when you apply. Always check the funder's own page for the current position before building a plan around it.

Free support is sometimes the better first step

If your question is still broad (whether to digitise something at all, or where to begin), there is free, publicly funded advice available before you pay anyone. Business Gateway, the Scottish Government's Find Business Support service and AI Scotland all offer it, and I would rather send you there than sell you something you do not need yet.

Find Business Support (opens in a new tab) →AI Scotland adoption support (opens in a new tab) →

What I can help with

Working out whether it is worth exploring. A plain look at whether your project is the kind of thing these schemes tend to support, and whether free support would serve you better first.
Shaping the business case. Framing the project around outcomes a funder can assess: what the process costs now, what changes, and how you would know it worked.
Scoping and quoting. A clear written scope and price for the work, which is usually what an application needs from a supplier.
Building the project. If funding comes through, or if you decide to proceed without it, I build and support the system as normal.

Funding is discretionary and decided by the funding body, not by me. Nothing on this page is a promise that you will receive support, that a particular scheme will be open, or that the £750 Workflow & Systems Review or any build will be eligible. Scheme details were last checked in September 2026.

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A £750 Workflow & Systems Review builds the case on real numbers

A funder wants to know what the current process costs and what changes. That is what the review produces: a workflow map, a grounded estimate from your own figures, and a ranked set of recommendations. Note that a grant-funded feasibility study may need a different, larger scope.

Book a Workflow & Systems ReviewOr just tell me what is getting stuck →

What you get

  • One or two defined processes mapped end to end
  • Where time, delay and cost are building up, using your own figures
  • Ranked recommendations: what to automate, where AI fits, what stays human
  • A scoped proposal for anything worth building

Credited in full against an implementation commissioned within 60 days.

Funding FAQs

I cannot tell you that, and nobody selling you a project should claim to. Funding is discretionary, the funder decides, and eligibility depends on your sector, location, size, employment practices and the project itself. What I can do is help you see whether it is the kind of project these schemes support, and give you a scope and quote to apply with.

For Highlands and Islands businesses, HIE publishes a Digital Specialist Advice Grant towards the cost of a feasibility study or digital action plan, and a Digital and Technology Adoption Capital Grant towards adopting the technology itself. Scotland-wide, AI Scotland offers free AI adoption support for SMEs through The Data Lab. Terms and availability change, so check the funder's own page.

Usually yes. HIE asks applicants to evidence quotes for the work: at least three for the advice grant, up to three for the capital grant. That is a normal part of the process and not a sign of bad faith towards whoever you would prefer to work with.

Some are, and some are restricted. HIE assesses every project case by case. Businesses mainly in retail, food and beverage service, personal services or business services such as legal and accountancy are considered on a case-by-case basis rather than ruled out. Accommodation run from the applicant's own home, organisations primarily core-funded by the public sector, and religious or political organisations are not eligible. Check the current position on HIE's own page rather than assuming.

Do not assume it is. HIE's Digital Specialist Advice Grant has a minimum payable grant of £2,000, so the standard £750 review is not something the grant would fund as it stands. A grant-funded feasibility study is a different, larger and more formally specified piece of work, scoped separately to what the funder expects rather than only to what you need commercially, and eligibility and funding are decided by HIE. If funding is genuinely on the table, tell me before we start and we can talk about which shape makes sense.

Often, yes. Business Gateway, Find Business Support and AI Scotland all offer free advice, and if your question is broad, that is a sensible place to start before paying anyone. I would rather point you there than sell you a review you do not need yet.

Not usually. Where support is available it typically covers part of the cost, and the balance is yours. The project needs to be worth doing on its own terms; funding should improve a good decision rather than justify a bad one.

Think your project might qualify?

Tell me what you are trying to build and where you are based. I will be straight with you about whether it looks like the kind of project these schemes support, and what a clear scope would need to say.

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