European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is a €308 billion programme of European Structural Funds across European Union member states for the period 2007-2013.

The East of England's allocation is approximately £83 million which is to be invested in the region under the EU "Competitiveness and Employment" objective.

Under this objective, the ERDF programme aims to strengthen the competitiveness and attractiveness of all regions in the UK, promote employment and economic growth through promotion of the knowledge economy and investment in human resources.

The ERDF programme for the East of England will support low carbon economic growth over the next seven years (2007-2013) and EEDA will manage and administer the programme after responsibility for its delivery was handed over from Government Office (GO-East) in October 2007.

What will ERDF funding be focused on?

The main theme of the ERDF programme throughout the seven year funding period, is supporting low carbon economic growth in the region. Funding will support initiatives that meet the programme's three priorities (axes) as well as environmental, sustainable and equality criteria.

The three priorities are:

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

More detailed explanation of the three priority axes (.pdf, 16kb) can be downloaded here.