ERDF
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.
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.
For more information and to apply, please click here.