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EU regional and urban development

Regional OP Centro

Programme description

Main objectives

The OP will contribute to promoting the competitiveness of the Centro region's economy and its sustainable development and internal cohesion. It will also boost the region's ability to contribute to the achievement of the key EU and national development priorities:

  • Around 38% of the OP resources is allocated to support competitiveness and innovation in SMEs.
  • Around 8 % will boost research and technical development (RTD) and innovation - helping the country reach its national Europe 2020 target to increase the proportion of GDP spent on RTD from 2.7% to 3.3% (it was at 1.5% in 2011). In particular, the OP investment is expected to foster research and innovation knowledge transfer to SMEs.
  • Around 8 % of the resources will be dedicated to creating sustainable and quality jobs and supporting labour mobility thus contributing to the attainment of the national Europe 2020 target of 72.8 % of 20-64 year-olds in employment (68.7 % in 2012).
  • More than 13% will be dedicated to promoting education and qualification, helping the country reach its national Europe 2020 target of bringing early school leaving down to 10% (from 23.2% in 2011).
  • Almost 10 % will be used to promote sustainable urban development.
  • Almost 5% of the OP funding aims to support the shift towards a low-carbon economy (investments in energy efficiency and sustainable mobility); these funds will contribute to Portugal's national Europe 2020 target of having 31% of energy from renewable sources (27.3 % in 2011). To ensure the sustainable development of the energy sector, the support will aim in particular to improve energy efficiency and sustainable mobility.

Funding priorities

The following priority areas shall be supported by the operational programme:

  • Research, development and innovation;
  • Competitiveness and internationalisation of the regional economy;
  • Developing human potential;
  • Promoting employment;
  • Strengthening social and territorial cohesion;
  • Ensuring the sustainability of resources;
  • Affirming the sustainability of territories;
  • Strengthening institutional capacity for regional administrative bodies;
  • Strengthening the urban network.

    • Expected impacts

    • Increase the value of exports in percentage of SE business volume to 16%;
    • Supporting some 3,280 SMEs, with grants or other repayable forms of support;
    • 70 more enterprises cooperating with research institutions;
    • Increase the percentage of SMEs with 10 and more employees engaging in innovation activities to 85%;
    • Enrolment/Participation of around 36.400 people to socially necessary work activities (or socially necessary jobs);
    • Contributing to the decrease of greenhouse gases by some 7.522 CO2 tons;
    • Contributing to creating some 3.800 direct jobs
    • Households with improved energy classification: 940
    • Creating/restoring 66,000 m2 of public or commercial buildings in urban areas;
    • Around 70% of primary and secondary schools upgraded
    • Around 8,400 public employees benefitting from innovation training
    • 50 Public services supported
    • A total 1,120,000 m² open space created or renovated in urban áreas;
    • A total 615,000 m² of public or commercial buildings built or renovated in urban areas

    Programme text

    Programa Operacional Regional do Centro 2014-2020

    Funds

    Regional Development Fund (ERDF): 1.814.311.682,00 €

    European Social Fund (ESF): 340.719.349,00 €

    Thematic priorities

    View the data

    Financial information

    Total OP budget: 2.630.816.583,00 €

    Total EU contribution: 2.155.031.031,00 €

    View the data