Scottish Government
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Euro funding for Scottish economy

Initiatives designed to increase Scotland's economic competitiveness, including third sector employment projects, will receive a European funding boost, it was announced yesterday.

Enterprise Minister Jim Mather welcomed the decision to award £158 million to 153 projects in Lowlands and Uplands Scotland through the 2007-13 European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF).

The Minister revealed details of the first round of funding on a visit to Fairbridge's Glasgow centre. Fairbridge will receive £1.4 million of European funding for a three-year project to help 1,830 young people in Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh progress into jobs, education or training and volunteering opportunities.

And innovative businesses will reap the benefits of record support from the Scottish Co-investment Fund (SCF). Over the next seven years, £72 million will be provided for the SCF to help young, cutting edge companies develop and grow. Administered by Scottish Enterprise, it match funds projects in technology sectors such as bio-technology, medical services and IT hardware and software.

Mr Mather said:

"European Structural Funds provide a major opportunity to complement the Scottish Government's drive to create a wealthier and fairer Scotland, as well as our economic and skills strategies.

"I am particularly pleased to see the third sector benefit from the latest round of funding. The third sector has significant transformational potential and more than 60 per cent of the ESF's individual employability projects will be run by third sector organisations including Momentum, the Princes Trust, Fairbridge and the Wise Group.

"This government is determined to improve Scotland's competitiveness and productivity. European funding will have a vital role to play in helping us achieve our goals."

Tom Watson, Director of Fairbridge in Scotland, said:

"The welcome news of ESF support for our programme will allow us to plan for the future with confidence. Continued funding means that Fairbridge in Scotland can deliver personalised support to 1,830 young people, aged 13-25 from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee over the next three years.

"We work with some of the hardest to reach young people in our society, many of whom are outside of education, employment and training or at risk of exclusion from school. With this money we will deliver an holistic, long-term personal development programme that will provide beneficiaries with the skills and support needed to overcome the barriers they have to effective engagement with the labour market and continuing education.

"In short, this money will help us to help them overcome barriers to achieving their potential and begin to turn their lives around."

Jack Perry, Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise, said:

"We welcome this substantial support from the European Regional Development Fund, especially at a time when there are so many countries and projects competing for a share. Scottish Enterprise greatly values the funding it receives from Europe which is a huge endorsement of our work in supporting innovation, the commercialisation of research and development and investment in Scotland's new high growth businesses.

"The timing for securing this funding could not be better, as we start to implement Scottish Enterprise's new remit as Scotland's agency for enterprise, innovation and investment. It also underlines the importance we place on continuing to support Scottish business growth through investment and shared risk."

It was announced last October that Scotland would receive £570 million of European Structural Funds in 2007-13. The money can be used to match-fund projects that will help Scotland improve its growth rate and get more people into work. Like other parts of the UK, Scotland has received just under half of the funding received in 2000-06. This reduction is a result of EU enlargement. The 2007-13 programmes in Lowlands and Uplands Scotland are administered by ESEP Ltd.

For the 2007-13 programme, a minimum project threshold was set to encourage larger scale, larger impact projects. For Lowlands and Uplands Scotland, eligible projects must have a minimum average cost of £200,000 or over. No threshold will apply in the Highlands and Islands, owing to the smaller nature of projects in that area. Public sector organisations can apply for funding, including local government, non-governmental organisations and the enterprise networks, as well as further education bodies and the third sector. The private sector cannot apply for the funding directly, though representative organisations can.

A ranked list of projects is submitted to the Programme Monitoring Committee (PMC), which comprises senior representatives of partners from the programme area, chaired by the head of the Scottish Government's European Structural Funds Division. PMC recommendations are passed to Ministers for final decisions on projects.

Today's announcement covers the first round of the 2007-13 programmes. Of the £158 million, just under £73 million of ERDF funding will support 45 individual projects designed to improve business innovation, the use of research and development, access to finance and resource efficiency. A further £43 million from ESF will support 108 individual projects aimed at helping those with barriers to employment or improving workforce skills and access to learning. In addition, up to £42 million will be awarded to Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) for regeneration projects.

The Scottish Co-investment Fund (SCF) is an equity investment initiative administered by Scottish Enterprise. Launched in 2003, it provides essential capital for innovative, high-growth Scottish companies. Using a co-investment approach, money is invested alongside private sector investors on a matched funding basis. The original SCF had a value of £43 million. £32m of the £72m comes from a successful application to the European Structural Funds, Lowlands and Uplands Scotland 2007-13 programme. The remaining £40 million comes from Scottish Enterprise.

The next opportunity for projects to bid for funding in Lowlands and Upper Scotland will be later this year. A separate announcement on successful projects from the first round in the Highlands and Islands will be made shortly.

Related Information

http://www.esep.co.uk/128.html

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Business-Industry/support/17404

http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/invest-scottish-co-investment-fund

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