Information and Guidance

 
Please see below for various guidance documents relating to ESF
Co-financing.

Cross-cutting themes:

There are three cross-cutting themes that are a requirement from the European Commission: Sustainable Development, Equal Opportunities and Information and Communication Technology (ICT).  These are essential aspects of making economic and social progress throughout Europe.

At a regional level these three areas are considered to be essential in order to achieve employment growth and improve competitiveness and provide long-term sustainability.

This means that all these areas must be considered and integrated into all aspects of project design, development, implementation, management and monitoring systems.

Below are guidance documents relating to each of the cross-cutting themes:

Sustainable Development

The protection and enhancement of the environment, both built and natural, is a key aim of European funding programmes. 

Click here to access the Sustainable Development toolkit, which is a useful, interactive tool for assessing how well your project addresses this theme, and provides helpful suggestions on how to improve any weak areas.  Please note - this document requires WinZip.  If you experience any problems using the interactive toolkit please email Maria Gammon.

Equal Opportunities

The guiding principle for mainstreaming Equal Opportunities is simple: policies, programmes and services should meet the needs of all groups in society.  This means ensuring there is no discrimination and proactively dealing with barriers to participation, progression and success.  Click here for guidance on Equal Opportunities.

ICT

The inclusion of ICT in projects will help to increase the domestic prosperity of the South West's economy and will also contribute to its national and international competitiveness.  Organisations using ICT will benefit from improvements in the areas of competition, innovation and growth.

ICT also offers many opportunities and solutions through which other goals, including social inclusion, equal opportunities and sustainability can be achieved.  In turn, projects incorporating ICT will help the region to be at the forefront of new developments, producing a cohesive, knowledge-based society capable of delivering sustainable economic and social prosperity for the region's population.

Click here to open the guidance document.

State Aid

For some programmes there will be State Aid implications.  State Aid refers to European rules concerning the provision of funding to businesses that has the potential to distort competition across the Union.  For more information on State Aid click here.