The purpose of the European Regional Development Fund, ERDF, is to strengthen economic and social cohesion within the EU by reducing regional disparities. The ERDF invests in growth and employment to strengthen regional development.

ERDF focuses its investments on several important priority areas. This goes under the concept of “thematic concentration”:
- Innovation and research.
- Digital agenda.
- Support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
- An economy with low carbon dioxide emissions.
Swedish Scaleups is a regional fund project funded by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth in which the goal is to increase the number of companies in eastern Central Sweden that can achieve a turnover of SEK 100 million. The project includes eight business incubators and science parks: UIC; Create Business Incubator, Munktell Science Park, LEAD, Norrköping Science Park, Vreta Kluster, Västerås Science Park and Incubate. The ambition is also to create an innovation-promoting structure across regional borders, which will benefit companies regardless of where they are established in eastern Central Sweden.