Overview
In partnership with Old Bell 3 Ltd and IFF Research, WISERD undertook a survey of ERDF assisted businesses under the Convergence and Competitiveness Programmes for WEFO. The survey findings supplement existing Programme monitoring data to assess the effectiveness of the ERDF Enterprise, Business Finance, and R&D and Innovation Priorities. The survey also provided useful information to WEFO on the outcomes achieved by the businesses assisted and financially supported by ERDF projects, at the mid-point of the current Programmes. In addition to the survey, further analysis was also undertaken to investigate the feasibility of using other sources of data about businesses (commercial databases, ONS Business Surveys) to investigate whether ERDF support can be proven to have a demonstrable effect on business survival and performance.
In addition to the main ERDF Business Survey, WISERD also contributed to a project (led by Old Bell 3 Ltd) to undertake a Mid Programme Evaluation of the Welsh Government’s Customer Engagement (CE) EU funded project for its Department for Business, Enterprise, Technology and Science. The project consisted of two separate but integrally related ERDF projects, one funded by the Convergence ERDF Programme (covering West Wales and the Valleys), the second by the Competitiveness ERDF Programme (covering East Wales). The CE project was included in the original sample of the ERDF business survey and so a bespoke analysis of the ERDF Business Survey was undertaken in relation to the CE project.
