Witchford design agency awarded £7,500 from European Union via Cambridgeshire Fens LEADER program

The Cambridgeshire Fens Local Action Group awarded the money as a ‘start-up grant’ so the company can ‘boost the digital economy in rural areas’.

Adrian Fry, chief executive officer and founder of virtualdesigncloud.com, said: “Our E.U. funding win is a real vote of confidence in the potential of virtualdesigncloud, its systems and concepts.”

With more than 25 years’ experience in the creative industries, he has been developing virtualdesigncloud since the beginning of 2016.

“I identified the need to bring the creative services industries into the 21st Century,” he added.

“We aim to cut businesses’ design costs for items such as brochures, adverts, point-of-sale and product packaging.

“When using traditional design agencies, businesses are faced with massive creative costs, in large part paying for agencies offices and infrastructure – with virtualdesigncloud, their design costs for marketing are halved.”

Kieran Carr, EU programmes manager at Cambridgeshire ACRE, said: “The Cambridgeshire Fens Local Action Group, who make the decisions on funding, were fully supportive of the project and felt it is important to embrace the digital economy in rural areas.

“This project offers excellent value for money and I look forward to watching the business grow in the coming years.”

The LEADER program in Cambridgeshire, delivered through the Cambridgeshire ACRE rural community council, has invested over £3 million in 80 initiatives since 2009.

It was set up to ‘support the sustainable development of the rural economy by investing in proposals which optimise the unique assets of the Cambridgeshire Fens, offer good value for money and strengthen the sustainable economic, social and environmental well-being of local communities”.

LEADER is part of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and is managed in England via Defra.

For more information visit virtualdesigncloud.com