The Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is urging organisations to bid for a share of £190million of EU funding that is now available.
To help organisations understand the latest EU developments and the City Region priorities for these calls for projects the LEP held an Information Day for over 200 delegates on Thursday, 2 April, 2015.
The calls have been developed to align with City Region strategies to enhance and accelerate the competitiveness and growth of the economy. The first calls for projects are around the areas of Research and Innovation, Business Support, Low Carbon and Employment and Skills, all of which are explained in the City Region European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF) document.
LEP Executive Director Alan Welby called on organisations across the City Region to bid for the funding: “I am delighted that the new EU funding is available across the City Region to support new business growth and new jobs. This programme has been designed by the LEP and local partners to ensure that our economy gets the biggest boost possible from this investment.”
Explaining the funding and bid process Alan said: “Although this is a significant programme we have received noticeably less funding than from previous EU programmes. This means we are looking at fewer projects, with partners, to make bigger impacts. With this in mind, I would advise interested organisations considering submitting a bid to read the Liverpool City Region ESIF and think about developing collaborative, large scale projects that work across the City Region geography.
“We are here to help you through this process and I would urge anyone interested in developing a project to talk to us for support and guidance.”
In the first stage of the £190m programme, a tranche of some £73million of funding is now made available to organisations including:
- £6m to increase SME growth
£6m to increase entrepreneurship
£31m employment & skills
£15m for research and innovation
£15m for Low Carbon
Further EU funding will unfold across the Liverpool City Region LEP area over the next six years to organisations, including those from voluntary sector, universities and councils all of which are now eligible to apply for funding.
Alan added: “This programme is a major milestone in the LEP’s support for jobs, productivity and skills in our drive to make the region one of the country’s most enterprising economy.”
For further information please on submitting a bid please contact Angela Woodward atangela.woodward@liverpoollep.org