Scouting Support Fund

The Scouting Support Fund is a Screen Ireland scheme covering the costs of an international scripted feature or television production sending a scout to Ireland to evaluate the country as a shooting location. Inbound productions only — it does not apply to indigenous Irish productions.

The fund is small but well-targeted: it removes the friction of an early Ireland visit for an international producer evaluating whether to use Ireland as a location.

Two strands

Strand 2 is specifically configured for productions sending the location manager (or director / DoP / producer) on a 3-day scouting visit plus 2 days of specific site visits. The €2,500 contributes to flights + accommodation + per-diems + ground transport for those 5 days.

Eligibility

Hard gates:

• International production — the producing company must be based outside Ireland
• Scripted feature or television production — documentaries and unscripted formats are out of scope
• Project budget must be at least €1m (Strand 1) or €5m+ (Strand 2)
• Not already in receipt of Screen Ireland funding — the Scouting Support Fund is for productions Ireland is competing for, not productions Screen Ireland is already funding

What's not covered

• Per-diems beyond what the fund explicitly contributes
• Production line items unrelated to the scout
• Costs incurred after the scout has happened — the fund is forward-looking, not retrospective

Submission

Application goes to: inwardproduction@screenireland.ie

The Inward Production team responds with eligibility confirmation, approves the scout dates, and processes the contribution.

Where it sits in the funding lifecycle

Scouting Support is before any other Screen Ireland funding conversation. The flow is:

1. International producer hears Ireland could be the location
2. Scouting Support funds the visit
3. Producer scouts, decides Ireland works
4. Producer engages with Screen Ireland on production funding or other instruments
5. Production funding kicks in if approved

The fund de-risks step 1→3 for the international producer.

Process detail

Beyond submission to inwardproduction@screenireland.ie, the SI website does not publish a fixed deadline (rolling), a decision SLA, or a structured form. The lightweight nature of the scheme is deliberate — it's a relationship-driven instrument operated by the Inward Production team.

How Togra supports this

The Scouting Support Fund does not appear in the standard producer-facing funder picker because Togra's user base is principally Irish producers — not the international producers this fund targets. It lives in Eolas as a reference for Irish producers attaching to international scripted projects who want to flag the scheme to their international counterpart.