OxLEP is bringing European Funding to Oxfordshire, helping to cement its place as a world-leading economy and culture.

European Structural and Investment Funds

The Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership has published its European Structural and Investment Funds Strategy. This plan can be downloaded here and the accompanying Technical Annex can be downloaded here.

OxLEP has received an allocation of around €22.8M (approximately £13.4M) of European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) for the period 2014 to 2020. The Oxfordshire European Structural and Investment Funds Strategy (Oxfordshire ESIF) sets out the overarching strategic priorities for Oxfordshire. The allocation is primarily made up of two funds:

• The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) – to support innovation and business support
• The European Social Fund (ESF) - to support social inclusion and skills development

OxLEP was also allocated €3,448,507 million (approximately £2.5M) European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development which it aims to spend on rural tourism, food production and small business development. An event is being organised on 9th February 2017 to advise rural businesses of the many opportunities available.

The ESIF programme is now being delivered. A timetable of when project calls were and are being published can be accessed here.

• OxLEP won the £2m bid for Start Up and Growth under the SME Competitiveness theme – see Oxfordshire Business Support.

• Activate Learning won the bid to run the £1.2m Building Better Opportunities project that will help more than 300 long term unemployed people access training and jobs - see Activate Learning's website

• Oxford City Council is running the £345,000 Oxfordshire Community Grants scheme that provides grants of between £5,000 and £50,000 to community groups helping residents to move closer to the labour market.

Please email info@oxfordshirelep.com if you have any questions on our ESIF programme.

Different options for European Funding are also available please refer to the Oxfordshire Business Support (OBS) page on EU Funding.