East of England Development Agency (EEDA) has secured an extra GBP5.5m in funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Competitiveness Programme to support low carbon research and development in the East of England. The funding will support the region’s position as a global provider of low carbon goods and services.
This extra finance supplements the an already comprehensive suite of support on offer for companies, available via EEDA’s Business Map. It is part of a much larger package of support that EEDA is bringing together to maximize the potential of the region as it makes the transition to a low carbon economy.
This package will include a GBP20m low carbon venture capital fund, also supported by the ERDF to plug the current gap in finance for early-stage start-ups, and a further GBP7m grant scheme to facilitate the exchanging of new commercial ideas between businesses and academic institutions.
EEDA said that by the end of 2010, there will be over GBP50m available to help firms wanting to seize low carbon opportunities in the East of England. The package of grants and incentives will drive the East of England towards a low carbon future, creating jobs, generating wealth and raising skills and aspirations in this fast growing economic sector.
Richard Ellis, chair of EEDA, said: ”The East of England is one of the UK’s leading economic areas and our goal is to capitalize on the region’s strengths in ideas, innovation and enterprise and to demonstrate national leadership in the field of low carbon technology and solutions. To support this rapid development EEDA is facilitating a significant GBP50m package of public and private-sector financial support, and there will be further detailed announcements during 2010.”
Deborah Cadman, CEO of EEDA, said: ”The economic landscape is very different now than it was ten years ago when RDAs were established. We have continued to respond to local needs and invested for the future, building on the region’s strengths with our renewable energy hub at OrbisEnergy, science parks at Colworth, GSK and Norwich Research Park. These investments are having a real, tangible benefit to people, places and business across the East of England.
”EEDA has a fantastic track record of funding innovative new products with each GBP1 invested through our grant for R&D program providing a return on investment of GBP12 into the economy.”