The Structural and Cohesion Funds are the EU’s main instruments for supporting social and economic restructuring across the EU. They account for over one third of the European Union budget.

The main Structural Funds available to the HE sector are:

• the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) promotes economic and social cohesion through the reduction of imbalances between regions or social groups;

• the European Social Fund (ESF) prevents unemployment, develops human resources and promotes integration into the labour market.

The 2007-2013 Structural and Cohesion Funds budget totals €308 billion for 2007-13. For this period the UK will receive €9.4 billion in Structural Funding. The new ESF programme will invest £4 billion in 2007-2013 of which £2 billion will come from the ESF and £2 billion will be national funding.

Each UK region has an allocation of ESF money to fund projects. Allocations are based on regional employment and skills needs and are matched with a similar amount of national funding.

Higher education institutions typically access Structural Funding through the ESF. This supports for the following types of activities: widening participation; postgraduate training; establishing Foundation Degrees; knowledge transfer; and, researching aspects of labour market discrimination.

The 2007 to 2013 ESF programme has two primary objectives:

• The Convergence Objective aims to develop areas where the economy is lagging behind the rest of the EU. In England, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly benefit from ESF funding under this Objective.
• The Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective covers all areas outside of the 'Convergence' objective. The whole of England is covered by this objective, except Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Within this objective, Merseyside and South Yorkshire benefit from transitional funding as former Objective One regions in 2000-2006.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has overall responsibility for ESF funds in England, the Scottish Government in Scotland. In Wales ESF funds are managed and implemented by the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO), an Executive Agency of the Welsh Assembly.

Higher Education European Funding Services (HEEFS) manages the HE Sector responsibilities under the ESF Objective 3 Programme in the UK. Since 2001, the Unit has also managed national ESF projects for the HE Sector in England. Details of the projects that have been or are currently running can be viewed by visiting the Unit’s websit.

At the regional level, ESF funds are distributed through public agencies such as the Learning and Skills Council and DWP. These agencies are known as 'Co-financing Organisations'. Their role is to bring together ESF and domestic funding for employment and skills so that ESF complements domestic programmes.

At the end of 2007, the European Commission consulted on the future of the EU cohesion policy. The first results of the public consultation were published in April 2008.