To ensure that environmental respect and social equity are put at the heart of the programme, the partnership has adopted Environmental Sustainability and Equal Opportunities as cross-cutting themes for the ERDF Programme.
For Environmental Sustainability, this means stimulating collaboration between businesses and the research base to develop and commercialise low carbon solutions for national and international markets by:
supporting sustainable production and consumption through targeted support of businesses, Research & Development, partnerships and projects; and
protecting natural resources through the careful design of projects and programme support systems.
For Equal Opportunities, this means ensuring that employment opportunities created as a result of investment in regional innovation are offered in an inclusive fashion by:
identifying and pursuing opportunities to actively engage underrepresented groups;
enabling all of the region’s citizens to benefit from increased wealth and prosperity through the growth of the regional economy; and
raising the earning potential for women, ethnic minorities and other disadvantaged groups.
To ensure effective management of the cross-cutting themes:
guidance has been produced;
the cross cutting themes will be incorporated into all project documentation from the criteria used for appraisal and project selection to monitoring checklists and progress updates;
performance measures will be established; and
the Priority Working Group will be assigned targets.