Welsh Government is currently undertaking an evaluation of its COVID-19 Economic Resilience Fund (ERF) and related support packages, which were introduced to provide financial assistance to businesses and other organisations during the pandemic.
It is vitally important that Welsh Government understands the impacts of this support and is able to assess how far it has assisted business survival and recovery prospects. The findings of this research will be critical in ensuring that any ongoing or future support is delivered as effectively as possible, to better support Wales’s economic recovery from the pandemic.
If your organisation received any of the following types of funding from Welsh Government, then you may be contacted at some point over the coming months and asked to take part in this research:
- Support under ERF or Sector Specific Fund (SSF) phases of funding (ERF 1, ERF 2, ERF 3, SSF 1, SSF 2, ERF 6 & ERF 7)
- A Start-Up Grant (administered by Welsh local authorities)
- Support under the COVID-19 Wales Business Loan Scheme (administered by Development Bank of Wales).
Welsh Government has commissioned Opinion Research Services (ORS), an independent social research company based in Swansea, to undertake the fieldwork on its behalf. If you do receive an email or telephone call about the evaluation from either Welsh Government or ORS, we very much hope that you will agree to take part in this important study.
You will be asked about how your business has used the funding it received, along with questions designed to assess the impacts of the pandemic on each organisation (for example, around turnover and on staffing levels before and during the pandemic), so you may find it helpful to collate some of the information before taking part.
For more information, please email ERF.PN@gov.wales or please see Welsh Government’s project privacy notice