SWEP should ensure that SW region continues to achieve fair share of funding from EU (October 2011)

Revamped Body will help firms to tap into European funding streams

The former South West UK Brussels Office has morphed into a new organisation which is aiming to help Westcountry businesses to access vital European funding.

The SWUKBO was one of a host of organisations which had its funding from the South West Regional Development Agency axed last year as the RDAs began to be wound down in favour of Local Enterprise Partnerships.

Local authorities and higher education institutions wanted the organisation to continue because of the role it has played in ensuring the South West gets its share of money from Europe, including the current round of Convergence funding. As a result, an interim board of directors has been set up and the office has been renamed the South West European Partnership.

It is run by a team of four in Brussels, with a Westcountry-based chief executive, David Fletcher, who took up the post earlier this month.

SWEP has been set up using reserves from its predecessor and will charge clients, ranging from local authorities and universities through to business groups and individual companies, for its services.

These will include providing intelligence on funding streams and EU policies in areas including post 2013 transitional funding and Common Agricultural Policy reforms.

Mr Fletcher said: "Whether you're pro, anti or ambivalent towards Europe, it's where the resource is coming from in terms of support for business and social enterprise."

The organisation will be formally launched on October 19 at County Hall, in Exeter.

While public sector spending in the UK has been cut back, the region has been given a multi-million allocation of structural funds from Europe – meaning that the EU could be a potentially vital source of investment.

But this can be difficult to access without knowledge of EU policies and procedures.

Devon County Councillor Will Mumford, an interim director of SWEP, said: "There is a real opportunity there if we can get people to tap into it. A lot of it is not available through individual claims but through collaborative bids – that's the clear message that seems to be coming out."

SWEP is already working on behalf of Devon and Somerset County Councils in a bid to increase the funding pot for their £91 million superfast broadband scheme.

As well as providing intelligence about funding initiatives, SWEP can also link Westcountry firms and organisations with European counterparts as some funding bids are contingent on a partnership approach.

For example, Devon County Council has received European funding to work in partnership with other organisations on a social enterprise scheme that is being co-ordinated by South Denmark's public authority.

SWEP clients already include Exeter and Plymouth Universities, Combined Universities in Cornwall and Devon and Somerset County Councils.

For more information log onto www.southwestuk.eu.