Dr Sara Davies and Professor John Bachtler appeared before the Scottish Parliament's Enterprise & Culture Committee on 13 March 2007 to present the report of an EPRC study on the impact of the Structural Funds in Scotland over the period 1994-2006.
The study, led by Sara Davies, was commissioned by the Enterprise & Culture Committee to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the Structural Funds programmes and to examine the effects of five major 'good practice' projects. On the basis of monitoring and evaluation data, the study found that over 150,000 businesses has been assisted over the 1994-2005 period, and the EU funding had contributed to the creation/safeguarding of more than 170,000 jobs in the same period.
There was also qualitative evidence of Structural Funds programmes encouraging a higher level of spend on economic development, a more strategic and targeted approach, and new project ideas. The perceived 'downside' of EU funding was primarily associated with the complexity of the funding and the bureaucracy of application, monitoring and financial control procedures.