What is ERDF?

Updated! Programme Prospectus published.

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is a €308 billion, seven year programme (2007-13) of European Structural Funds across member states in the European Union (EU). The East of England has been allocated approximately €110 million (approximately £75 million) of this funding to be invested in the region under the EU "Competitiveness and Employment objective". This allocation can be used to part-fund projects with additional finance coming from UK public and private sources.

Under this objective, the ERDF Programme aims to strengthen the competitiveness and attractiveness of regions throughout the UK, promote employment and growth through promotion of the knowledge economy and investment in human resources. This new Programme moves on from the previous Objective 2 Programme which was closed to new applications in September 2007. However Government Office for the East of England (GO-East) continues to manage ongoing commitments under this Programme.

What is EEDA's role?

EEDA took over responsibility for the management and administration of ERDF in the East of England from GO-East on 1 October 2007. A broad regional partnership known as the European Programmes Strategy Group (EPSG) which includes local authorities and regional agencies, meet regularly to review progress and guide future action. This is independently chaired by GO-East. An ERDF delivery group will consider potential projects and make recommendations to EEDA to approve funding for projects.

What are the objectives of the new East of England ERDF programme?

The £80 million East of England ERDF competitiveness programme will support low carbon economic growth in the region over the next seven years. The fund will support initiatives which meet the programme's three priorities, as well as environmental specific sustainability and equality criteria:

To promote innovation and knowledge transfer with the intention of improving productivity.
To stimulate enterprise and support successful busness by overcoming barriers to business creation and expansion
To ensure sustainable development, production and consumption.

To find out more about the East of England ERDF competitiveness programme please click on the links below.

ERDF in context
Priority axes indicative activities
Operational programme*

* This was approved by the European Commission on 18 December 2007. Several workshops were held in October 2007, to give partners an early indication of the detail of the programme. For a copy of the presentation slides from the October workshops click here to view or right-click and save the target file to your computer. Summary documents of the workshops are listed below and available for download. To view the notes from the question and answer sessions from the workshops, click here.

Summary of workshops 12 October 2007

Summary of workshops 15 October 2007

Summary of workshops 16 October 2007

How can organisations draw on ERDF funds for economic development projects?

Any organisation that is legally formed can deliver projects using ERDF funds . Partners can apply as a consortium as long as a bid or tender is led by one legal entity. Organisations can put themselves forward to deliver projects in line with the East of England ERDF competitiveness programme in one of three ways:

Responding to open bidding rounds - where individual organisations or partnerships can submit project applications in response to the timetable published in the programme prospectus.
Responding to an Invitation to Tender - Invitations to Tender will be published where there is a clearly defined need for a type of project in the region and a variety of potential partnerships or delivery bodies with the expertise to undertake this.
Commissioning - one organisation may be directly commissioned to deliver specific projects where there is a single, clear lead body to undertake a particular area of work on behalf of the region.

There is no minimum or maximum size for potential projects, but given the limited resources available for the programme, projects delivering multiple benefits to multiple beneficiaries are more likely to be supported. All projects seeking support will need to demonstrate clear links to the Programme's overall theme of low carbon economic growth - and delivery of one or more of the Priority Axis aims and objectives.

Programme Prospectus

EEDA is pleased to announce the launch of the ERDF Competitiveness Programme Prospectus and the first open bidding round. Expressions of interest can be submitted on an ERDF Project Concept Form. Potential applicants should read the Operational Programme, Programme Prospectus and Bidding Round 1 Guidance to establish if proposals are likely to fit with the programme strategy before considering submission of an expression of interest on an EEDA ERDF Project Concept Form.

This is the start of a seven year Programme and the Programme Prospectus details arrangements for the initial bidding rounds through to 2009. As a consequence of a later than anticipated approval of the Operational Programme, the timetable for bidding round 1 is very tight. Expressions of interest need to be received by 5.00pm on Monday 11 February 2008. Proposals that do not need an early start date should not be submitted in bidding round 1 but held for the later bidding rounds announced in the Prospectus.

It should be noted that the Programme Prospectus has been published in draft form pending final confirmation of approval by the regional partnership, the European Programmes Strategy Group, on 6 February 2008. A revised version of the Prospectus will be issued after that data which will also contain details of the Project Selection Criteria.