Lowlands & Uplands Scotland EDRF Programme
Priority 1: Research & Innovation
Allocation ca. £9 million annually
Strategic Delivery Body: Scottish Enterprise
Support for individual enterprises & research centres
- Support for research centre infrastructure
- Supporting enterprise demand & capacity for research & innovation
Support for research collaboration
- Support for collaborative commercialisation projects
- Technology transfer projects
Eligable Activites
Sectors include: aerospace; chemicals; digital media; electronics; energy; life sciences; and micro- and opto-electronics, renewable energy
- Technology transfer programmes for individual enterprises
- Support to enterprises and individuals for converting research ideas into potential products, services and process improvements
- Scoping studies and prototype development for individual enterprises
- Projects aiming to increase demand in individual enterprises for research and innovation and adapt business processes that encourage more internal innovation practices
- Investments in individual enterprise capacity to develop full product development and market research
- Support for research collaboration
- Creation of collaborative research projects that address RTD bottleneck gaps in particular technologies and sectors
- Pilot projects that test out new approaches to encouraging innovation with mainstreaming activity
- Projects that encourage enterprises with limited experience in working with research partners to develop collaboration
- Promotion of new sustainable RTD and supply networks, particularly for local SMEs, that transfer key research and innovation knowledge
Priority 2: Enterprise Growth
Allocation ca. £12 million annually
Access to finance
- Investor readiness programmes
- Risk capital funding for enterprises
Entrepreneurship support
- Encouraging would be entrepreneurs to set up enterprises
- Advisory support for new businesses
Business Process
- Encouraging greater take up of e-business
- ‘Greening’ of businesses
Eligible activities
- Access to finance
- Investor readiness programmes
- Support for risk capital funding for the region as a whole, where such schemes can demonstrate market gaps and build on the experience of past schemes
- Investment funding for early stage and start-up of new enterprises
- Targeted services for sign-posting enterprises to potential funding sources
- Initiatives that raise the capacity, skills and readiness of enterprises to assess their funding needs, manage new funding and general investor readiness
Entrepreneurship support
- Addressing gaps in pre- and post-start up provision of advice
- Promotional events for would-be entrepreneurs, particularly in more remote or deprived parts of the region
- Projects that promote start-ups from groups with relatively low rates of entrepreneurship, such as ethnic minorities and women
- Projects that encourage the greater conversion of would-be entrepreneurs to start-ups
Business processes
- Projects that encourage the take-up of e-business among enterprises
- Support for the development of e-commerce strategies by enterprises
- Development and implementation of environmental and carbonuse/ footprinting audits by enterprises
- Introduction of more environmentally-sustainable production systems and business processes
- Small-scale adaptation of businesses to renewable energy technologies
Priority 3: Urban Regeneration - MORAY IS NOT ELIGABLE
Allocation ca. £9 million annually
Strategic Delivery Body: Community Planning Partnerships 3 CPPs in eligible areas will run the pilot from March 2008 for 2years
Linking urban areas of need with areas of opportunity
- Job brokerage schemes
- Development of local e-business & learning centres
- Better local ICT access for local job seekers
Improving the potential capacity of urban areas to develop
- Refurbishment of workspace
- Small scale conversion of industrial sites
- Local renewable energy production
Only 13 most deprived Local Authority areas are eligible and it will be reviewed on an annual basis.
Priority 4: Rural development
Allocation ca. £6 million annually
Strategic Delivery Body: Scottish Alliance
Strengthening rural industries & diversification
- Sector wide diversification strategies
- Development of new sources of supply & production processes
Support development of key shared services to underpin rural diversification
- Development of local ICT and learning facilities
- Strategies to improve education access
- Start up of community transport initiatives
Only 10 Local Authority areas are eligible and it will be reviewed on an annual basis.
Eligible activities
- Support for sector-wide marketing initiatives to promote diversification in traditional industries in the region, particularly through identification of new market opportunities (including niche and exporting strategies)
- Support for enterprises and groups of enterprises in developing new sources of supply and production processes
Key shared services
- Support for refurbishment and enhancement of business centre and childcare facilities and training/learning centres
- Small-scale support for ICT investments enabling distance learning and higher and further education outreach in remote communities
- Small-scale business site development (especially those that employ ‘green design’ principles)
- Development of educational access strategies for rural areas
- Start-up support for the development and initial implementation of community transport initiatives
- Piloting of emission-reducing and clean-energy vehicles and transport systems
Up to 10% of the funding in this priority can be used for related ESF-type expenditure
Contact Details:
ESEP Ltd
Forth House
Burnside Business Court
North Road
Inverkeithing
Fife
KY11 1NZ
Tel: 01383 413141
Fax: 01383 413151
Email: fife@esep.co.uk
www.esep.co.uk
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