Baseline Research on West Midlands Success in EU Trans-National

Funding Programmes 1999 - 2006

Researched and Compiled by Tarla Patel

A full report of the Baseline Research is now available, please see below for some introductory and concluding information on our findings:

Looking Ahead: 2013 - The Reduction of the Structural Funds

The West Midlands as a region has been a major recipient of structural funding from the European Union primarily European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund for more than
two decades. During the 2000-2006 period the Region received nearly €1,500 million in Structural Funds. For the current funding period 2007-2013 this sum has been reduced as more money goes to the new Member States in Central and Eastern Europe. The West Midlands will still receive around €770 million to help with the modernisation of the regional economy and its skills base.

However, these subsidies are now running out. Due to the pressures of EU enlargement, and the gradual successful economic regeneration of the Region, the West Midlands may qualify for much reduced regional aid on this basis. So following the end of this programming period in 2013, it is anticipated that the Region, like many others across Europe, may receive much reduced funding through the structural funds. Despite the transition arrangements in place for this programming period, this will nonetheless have a major impact upon the Region.

Alternative Sources of European Funding: Trans-national Funds

However, there is an array of alternative European funding programmes The West Midlands as a region has been a major recipient of structural funding from the European Union primarily European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund for more than two decades. During the 2000-2006 period the Region received nearly €1,500 million in Structural Funds. For the current funding period 2007-2013 this sum has been reduced as more money goes to the new Member States in Central and Eastern Europe. The West Midlands will still receive around €770 million to help with the modernisation of the regional economy and its skills base. However, these subsidies are now running out. Due to the pressures of EU enlargement, and the gradual successful economic regeneration of the Region, the West Midlands may qualify for much reduced regional aid on this basis. So following the end of this programming period in 2013, it is anticipated that the Region, like many othersacross Europe, may receive much reduced funding through the structural funds. Despite the transition arrangements in place for this programming period, this will nonetheless have a major impact upon the Region.that operate in addition to, and independently of, the structural funds.

One group of funds are the "Trans-national Funds". The main three programmes examined here are: INTERREG (Strategic policy exchange); Life-Long Learning (education and training); and Competitiveness & Innovation Programmes (SME development and sustainable growth). These programmes aim to increase the mobility of people within the EU (i.e. encourage travel, working/studying abroad and increase co-operation between organisations, institutions and businesses).

There are some key characteristics of trans-national funds:

• They all increase mobility
• They do not use geographical maps to restrict eligibility (so all areas of the EU qualify)
• Any organisation may apply (however small)
• These are much simpler funds to apply for, manage, and report back (especially the financial reporting)
• Projects can be very small or very big
• Outputs are "soft" in terms of measuring achievements

As a region, the West Midlands needs to re-focus on these types of competitive European funds in order to bridge the gap between the reduced structural funds and local or regional project needs. There is currently a seven-year window in which organisations could build up their knowledge, capacity, experience and success of these funds. It is anticipated that post 2013, the trans-national funds will become more competitive as many more former-objective 2 regions realise their potential.

What is our starting position?

In order to better understand the potential value and impact of trans-national funds, we must first assess how well the West Midlands as a region has succeeded in securing these funds so far. This publication aims to present a baseline for benchmarking our current experience under each of the funds, in order to map this expertise and identify any gaps that could become the focus for future bidding rounds. Therefore the maps will
indicate which organisations have demonstrated successful experience in terms of capacity to bid successfully and manage projects: however these maps cannot show any level of fund distribution or individual level impact.

We undertook this work in order to establish an understanding of the level of experience and expertise in the Region in managing transnational projects under the programmes identified. This report is aimed at decisionmakers in public, private and voluntary sector organisations who may wish to consider engaging in trans-national project activity to enhance their products, services or systems by sharing best practice with European partners. This comparative analysis has not been done before and has not been done in any other UK region. However the indications are that the West Midlands does secure a moderate degree of success in these funds, when compared to other regions in the UK.

In the map opposite, all successful trans-national grants have been mapped, and colour coded to indicate whether under INTERREG, Life-Long Learning or CIP programmes (the strength of colour indicates the size of grant in Euros as per the key). In total 919 projects were successfully funded through these programmes in the West Midlands between 2000 and 2006, securing a total of €49, 257,042. Of these, 30 were INTERREG projects, 868 were Lifelong Learning and 21 were under CIP.

However this is only part of the picture, because as the map indicates, the financial value of these projects varies under each fund.

Furthermore, the geographical map is striking in its message: it reveals some very strong pockets of experience in these funds as well as some gaps in engagement.

In addition, the identification of applicant by sector enables a deeper analysis of project
experience within certain sectors. Notably public bodies, especially local authorities, have considerable experience, whereas third sector organisations and businesses are less well represented.

What are the Implications?

This initial overview of our Region's performance raises some very interesting questions. Firstly, how does this overall picture compare with other UK (or EU) regions and their performance under the funds?

Secondly, why is there a greater degree of success under Lifelong Learning, with so few larger scale bids submitted under INTERREG or CIP?

Furthermore, how do we explain the geographic and sectoral concentration of successful projects?

More importantly, how can we overcome this by spreading the benefits and experience across the Region, to penetrate the "cold spots" currently exposed?

According to this study, areas for particular focus vary according to each fund, however rural zones, particularly in the south and west of the Region, as well as third sector and private sector applicants offer particular potential.

The Next Level of Detail

In order to explore each of the funding programmes in detail, this baseline report will now examine the Region's performance across each programme, each fund and each funding strand, to offer a detailed analysis of our strengths, weaknesses, experience and gaps.

The Next Steps

The purpose of this report is to offer a picture of the baseline of current experience in organisations under these funds, to compare against the level of future submissions from the Region. The intention is to demonstrate the considerable potential in these trans-national funding streams, and the benefits they may offer to organisations in the West Midlands. EU Connects is the new Region-wide EU funding advice centre that aims to increase engagement in and successful bids to, the trans-national funding programmes identified here. Building on the considerable experience identified in our
Region, EU Connects aims to build capacity in new organisations to share that experience, and facilitate existing experienced organisations to maximize their potential in this process. If you are interested in finding out more about trans-national funds and how to apply then please see the final page which outlines our work or get in touch with our office about a free advice surgery, bid-writing workshop or feedback on your first draft application.

CONCLUSIONS: Learning the Lessons from the Past

Geography

Throughout this analysis, the data consistently indicates a recurring trend of geographic penetration across all funding programmes that favours the central urban spine of the West Midlands (Telford-Wolverhampton-Birmingham- Coventry). In this corridor we find repeated success and consolidated expertise in successfully applying for, managing and delivering EU trans-national funded projects.

Whilst there are other sub-regions that perform modestly (Staffordshire, North Shropshire and Warwickshire) across different funding streams; there is still a startling lack of engagement in the South West of the Region, particularly in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and South Shropshire.

The most pronounced gaps were noticeable for Grundtvig funding (adult education projects) and INTERREG funding (Strategic policy exchange), although this was mirrored, in a limited way, by Leonardo, Comenius and CIP funds.

This raises several questions:

• How can we work differently to ensure a wider spread of successful projects for the funding programmes of 2007-2013?
• Have the counties in the south west applied unsuccessfully to these funds, or have they not applied? (So is this an issue of a skills gap or an awareness gap?)
• How much can this urban-rural disparity be explained by population density? Or access to existing structural funds?
• Are the urban sub-regions organised and supported with different structures to the rural sub-regions?
• Do the subject themes within the EU funds favour urban environments? (Do they seem irrelevant to rural communities?)
• Have similar trends been identified in other UK regions?
• How we can we respond to ensure the knowledge is transferred to maximise the potential for the rural counties in the south west of the Region?

Sectors

There is another important finding from this research: the public sector and in particular, the local authorities in the Region, are very experienced in applying successfully to these
trans-national funds. Where appropriate, there is also high engagement from educational institutions in the Region. However, there is fairly low engagement by the third sector, and even lower engagement by the private sector in these funds.

Predictably, certain funds were dominated by certain sectors (Comenius could only receive applications from schools; Leonardo was dominated by further and higher education bodies and CIP was dominated by the private sector).

Nonetheless, there was still a noticeable absence of the third sector, and the private sector was relatively under-represented in funds such as INTERREG and Leonardo da Vinci where in other countries, they are more prevalent.

Again, this suggests that there are hidden pockets of expertise and experience in Birmingham, Coventry and Shrewsbury, who reapply consistently to funding streams. In order to maximise the value of this expertise, our Region needs to find a way to transfer this knowledge through partnership working to help support new project applications from the south west and other rural parts of the Region.

Value

The funds examined here are varied in subject, sector and value, from the smallest €500 grant for a school preparatory visit to a major INTERREG policy exchange worth up to €10 million.

In many cases we find that the partners in the West Midlands have focused on securing a few, large scale funding bids. This has led to isolated pockets of expertise, which now offers the Region untapped potential in terms of transferring that knowledge across to a wider sectors, geographic areas and individuals.

The West Midlands faces a challenge in this current funding programme, to prepare itself for the post-2013 landscape where structural funds may be much reduced, and most EU funding will be the subject of competitive bid writing under these trans-national funds. In order to survive - and succeed - the Region must use the window of opportunity before it: between now and 2013, to build up that institutional capacity and expertise in understanding these new funds; in applying successfully to run trans-national projects and in gaining project management skills to ensure maximum impact from the knowledge transfer they will deliver.

Therefore, in order to increase the impact of funding success, the Region needs to increase the number of successful funding bids from firsttime applicants. For these organisations, a small value bid will enable a successful engagement in this new arena, and bring about the institutional development and attitudinal shifts that are required if we are to equip our colleagues with the necessary skills for the future.

Hence the value of successful bids (in monetary terms) is only one factor to be considered. The soft impact on organisations and individuals of gaining this expertise is the real benefit to our Region, if we are able to increase our engagement in these funds.

A more successful map of the West Midlands - the one we hope to see in 2013 - would show a large number of (smaller or not necessarily big) funded projects with wide geographic spread across all sub-regions, and engaging partners from all sectors.

Ideas for Future Action

How we work collectively between now and 2013 can influence that map. By taking full
advantage of the opportunities open to us over the next seven years, we can increase our engagement in these funds - and deliver meaningful projects to benefit our communities across every corner of our Region.

The evidence here suggests that experience and expertise leads to further success across all the funds: this is something we must learn to capture and redistribute perhaps through training, or partnership working or sub-contracting consultancy.

Furthermore, different models of support structures in different sub regions and for different funds have revealed varying success rates. A further piece of work could examine how transferable some of these approaches to other funds are.

EU Connects is a publicly-funded body that aims to support any bid to a European trans-national funding programme; a free advice centre open to any organisation in any part of the Region. The following list outlines the ways in which we can assist.

For a full copy of the Baseline Report, please email: info@euconnects.org