The Directorate-General for Regional Policy has launched a tender to study the relevance and the effectiveness of ERDF and Cohesion Fund support to regions with specific geographical features.

The Specific objectives of the tender (B-Brussels: study on the relevance and the effectiveness of ERDF and Cohesion Fund support to regions with specific geographical features — islands, mountainous and sparsely populated areas)are:

• To examine the extent to which cohesion policy interventions are and have been appropriate in islands and mountainous and sparsely-populated regions.
• To explore policy and governance approaches and identify good practices in implementing 'territorial cohesion' on the ground in the case of islands, mountainous and sparsely-populated regions.

The study covers convergence and regional competitiveness and employment objectives (2000 - 2006 and 2007- 2013) focusing particularly on 30 selected regions receiving support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) or the Cohesion Fund. The study does not cover the outermost regions because of their special legal status and extreme remoteness/isolation, because these territories must be considered in a separate analysis.

The European Commission has set up a maximum budget of 250,000 Euros (lump sum, including fees, travel expenses and other costs) and bids can be submitted until 14th September 2010.