In its 2 strategic schemes SREDEEII/SRESRI, the Region thus affirms its desire to make the region a land of business and research and to support a greater number of SMEs. By virtue of its economic competence and its role as manager of the ERDF funds, it mobilises axis 1 of its ERDF OP for regional economic competitiveness. Indeed, there are challenges to investment and financing of TPEs/SMEs. One of the levers is to simplify access to bank financing for TPEs/SMEs. To this end, the region will be able to rely, inter alia, on the construction with Bpifrance of the ERDF Regional Fund. The challenge of SMEs’ competitiveness and territorial growth requires concerted public action. The fund will jointly mobilise ERDF and regional resources, limited in two dedicated strands, with a leverage effect on private funding. The fund will be managed by Bpifrance, which will control the risk and bear the risk of depletion of the fund. It will act as a bank guarantee to respond to funding shortfalls, specifically on the start-up and transfer-retake phases. Indeed, it is proposed to make a strong focus on these two risky segments where financing needs are strong. The ex ante evaluation identifies an issue of developing the guarantee offer and assesses the uncovered bank guarantee financing needs between EUR 100 million and EUR 450 million in 2014-20. It also notes economic dynamism falling behind national averages, leading in particular to a weakness in business start-ups, even though the survival rate of low-Norman companies is among the highest in France. At the same time, a generation of business leaders will soon retire. The problem is particularly strong in the industrial and service sectors. The demographic change of low-standard entrepreneurs therefore means that the financing needs of SMEs in recovery/transmission are increasing, while the existing tools in recovery/transmission are already insufficiently sized.This situation is incompatible with the region’s economic strategy. The fund will act as a bank guarantee to facilitate SMEs’ access to bank credit, particularly in the risky phases of business start-up and transfer/takeover. The bank guarantee is a good channel of financing in these often expensive phases, in which banks intervene under optimally in view of their importance to the regional economy. Over the period 2007-2013, EU funds have enabled businesses to modernise their productive machinery and to cope with the economic and social crisis of 2009. The Fund will provide a complementary response to the ERDF regional offer in the form of a grant and as a priority in segments not sufficiently covered by the market as risky and expensive (creation, take-over/transmission). The intervention will also be consistent with other forms of regional intervention, in particular implemented by Bpifrance (FRG), as well as Bpifrance’s interventions on national and/or European resources. To this end, the Regional Directorate of Bpifrance will ensure that the instrument is implemented in close proximity, in conjunction with the services of the Region. On the other hand, the positioning of Bpifrance in the banking ecosystem, the fund will increase the spread of European financing to companies: the guarantee granted under the Fund shall be open to all Lender Institutions approved by the Board of Directors of Bpifrance.