Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund

Our webinars are designed to:

• Provide guidance on the funding scheme
• Provide an opportunity to meet the Salix team
• Answer any questions applicants may have

The webinars will be held on Thursday, 2 November and Wednesday, 8 November at 2pm  

Please send any specific queries to [email protected]

Salix has created a brief video detailing Scotland's Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund. In this video, Salix's Programme Coordinator, Zoe Hurst, talks about how the £20 million scheme will be delivered.

To access the Salix Application Portal you will be required to log in with a Salix account. If you have an existing account, please do check your log in details prior to the Application Portal opening. If you do not have a Salix account, you can register for one.

Once you have generated a Salix account, be sure to check your login details ahead of the Application Portal opening date.

Please note, this is a different account to SERS (Salix Energy Reporting System) used in Recycling Fund management.

To enable Salix to effectively monitor applications, we ask that you register your interest in applying for the scheme by emailing [email protected] with your intention to apply and which category. It is not necessary to detail the intended project or provide any further information at this point, Salix will only assess and provide feedback on applications submitted through the portal.

There will be no consequence incurred should an application be submitted without an expression of interest.

Read the Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund Guidance Notes which includes everything you need to know about the scheme. The Guidance Notes will provide you with information around eligibility, project criteria, and key dates.

The online Application Portal will gather information we require to process your application. To help familiarise yourself with the Application Portal and overall process, please download a copy of the Application Portal questions. These questions are separate from the Application Form and are required to be completed in full alongside uploading the Application Form and all supporting information.

The Terms and Conditions for the Scotland‘s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund will be published in the coming weeks. These Terms and Conditions will govern the relationship between Salix Finance and the Grant Recipient in connection with the provision of the Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund by Salix to the recipient. Please also refer to the Privacy Notice.

Once the Application Portal opens, all applicants must log into their accounts to begin the application process. Applicants must fill out the key information and attach all the required and supporting documents.

The application process must be completed by the public sector organisation, not the consultants involved in the project.

Note that there are two options of application: Detailed and Concept Applications. Please make sure that you have selected the correct option when submitting your final application and that you have completed the correct information on the application form for the option you have selected.

Salix will conduct an initial quality check of your application to ensure it meets the minimum criterion and all mandatory supporting documents are attached. You may be contacted by Salix if you fail this step and need to provide additional information.

If you pass the quality check in step 8, your application will proceed to the technical assessment. Note the technical assessor, may be external to Salix so please check for emails relating to your application.

The technical assessor will assess the application as received and there will be no opportunity to submit further evidence. This highlights the necessity in submitting a robust and fully evidenced application. Please refer to Section 7.2 in the guidance notes for the full list of required documentation.

The technical assessors will conduct their assessment and will only ask for clarification if a score is unable to be determined. As such, applicants should ensure someone within the organisation can be available to deal with any queries during this period. Applicants should endeavour to respond to any queries during the assessment process within three working days, delays to responses may result in the failure of the assessment.

The clarification points will not be an opportunity to provide additional information once the application has been submitted, this ensures that there is fairness across the fund and that the quality of application is determined from the outset.

Once applications have passed through the technical and feasibility assessments, they will continue to the second stage of assessment.

Applicants will be contacted by members of the Salix Scotland team for a deliverability call. The deliverability call will discuss the Project Delivery and Social Impact sections of the application, as well as provide information necessary for the Grant Offer Letter to be drafted.  This call is not assessed, but used as an opportunity to discuss the project in more detail ahead of allocation of funding.

Once all applications have been fully assessed and results have been finalised, applicants will be notified by Salix regarding their assessment outcome. For successful Detailed Applications, a Grant Offer Letter (GOL) will be issued to formally confirm the funding awarded. The GOL will include any project-specific conditions that need to be met throughout the project life in order to receive grant funding. Further information on GOLs can be found in the scheme guidance. Providing there are no delays during the assessment process, GOLs should be sent out to applicants by February 2024.

Successful Concept Applications will be issued a Reservation of Funding Letter (RFL) that will stipulate the requirements to be met to receive full award and subsequent Grant Offer Letter.

Unsuccessful applicants will be informed of their assessment outcome by Salix and will receive feedback on their application to assist applicants in any future applications to the scheme.