Regional Developments

Local Partnerships cover each Local Authority Area, and members are drawn equally from Public, voluntary and social sectors. They are responsible for developing local strategy in line with the overall programme strategy. They promote the programme locally and provide aftercare for projects that have been approved.

These groups are responsible for advising WEFO on strategic direction and most effective use of resources in the Objective 1 area that they cover. The TAGs came into being in January 2004 as a result of the simplification process and replace the existing Regional and Strategy Partnerships. They are responsible for advising the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) on the strategic direction of the programme and making most effective use of remaining funds. There are between 10-14 members in each group and there are six TAG's, covering each of the priorities in Objective 1.

Thematic Advisory Groups (TAGs)

The 6 Thematic Groups

Group 1: Business Support for SMEs (Priority 1 – Expanding and Developing the SME base)

Group 2: ICT Innovation and R&D (Priority 2 – Developing innovation and the
knowledge-based economy)

Group 3: Community Economic Regeneration (Priority 3 – Community Economic
Regeneration)

Group 4: Education Training and Skills (Priority 4 – Developing People)

Group 5: Rural (Priority 5 – Rural Development and Sustainable Natural Resources)

Group 6: Infrastructure (Priority 6 – Strategic Infrastructure Development (including energy from Priority 2).

The Thematic Advisory Groups have overall responsibility for advising WEFO on the strategic direction and most effective use of remaining resources in the area of the Programme which they cover. Their roles are to:

• Advise on strategic priorities for funding within each Measure comprising the Programme Priority and taking these into account;
• Provide a qualitative assessment to WEFO of each project as part of the appraisal of that project (as required by Chapter 10 of the SPD), and
• Monitor and evaluate overall delivery of the Priority.

Their role also includes advising and reporting as necessary to the Programme Monitoring Committee on particular issues and their work overall.

For further information on the Thematic Advisory Groups please see WEFO.