TECHNOLOGY companies and universities in the region are being offered financial backing to help them apply for EU funding for research and development projects.

Regional development agency One NorthEast has set up a £400,000 fund to help companies put together bids for a share of £17bn European funding, aimed at establishing specialist industries across Europe.

The EU funding also offers regional companies a link with the European research and development market.

One NorthEast's Enabling Fund - which will award grants of between £5,000 and £15,000 - sits alongside the One NorthEast Facilitation Service, providing expert help to regional companies and universities to cut through complex paperwork.

It will help pay project research costs, assess the feasibility of a project, analyse markets and pay for a consultant to write the scientific content of a proposal.

Alan Clarke, One NorthEast chief executive, said: "The Enabling Fund will play a key role in gaining our regional firms and universities access to important European funding and innovation.

"Business competitiveness in Europe is a key element for any company looking to further its growth, and in the past, companies and universities have encountered a major barrier of cost and time in preparing bids for framework programme assistance.

"This new enabling fund will help to break down this barrier and we can also offer a free facilitation service to guide applicants through the complex application process."

For information about the fund, which helps nanotechnology and biotechnology research, contact Steve Broome on (01642) 245931.