ROP ESF is the document used by Regione Sardegna to plan the use of resources from the European Social Fund for the period 2007-2013, to strengthen the economic and social cohesion, while improving job opportunities and fostering a higher level of employment and new and better job positions.

ROP ESF was elaborated to be consistent with the Strategic Guidelines and EU Regulations on cohesion policy and with the instructions of the National Strategic Framework.

The Regional Strategic Document (RSD) and the Regional Development Plan (RDP) contributed to give a local dimension to the document  and to identify the priorities and goals to be achieved during the 2007-2013 planning.

The regional development strategy consists of 6 Axes or Priorities for intervention:

Axis I – Adaptability
Axis II – Employability
Axis III – Social Inclusion
Axis IV – Human Capital
Axis V – Transnationality and Interregionality
Axis VI – Technical Assistance

In the frame of Axis IV, dedicated to the promotion of human capital, actions on reforming the education, training and work systems are included, considering the strengthening of the institutional partnership of the educational system with other systems, while promoting the use of IT and communication in the education and training context.

This goal should be strongly connected to a proper regional evaluation system on education. The system for school, university and professional guidance should be integrated and networks involving Universities, Research and Technology centres, production and institutional sectors should be created.

On 17th December 2014 the EU Commission approved the Operational Programme ESF of Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, with Decision C (2014) no. 10096 of 17.12.2014.

The financial resources of ROP ESF 2014-2020 are more than EUR 440 million, and are distributed on 5 areas:

- Employment to promote actions for the reduction of unemployment and the enhancement of employment, especially among young people and women;

- Social inclusion to promote social cohesion and integration among disadvantaged people;

- Education and training to improve the quality of human capital through the strenghthening of education and training systems;

 - Institutional and administrative skill to make the administration more effective and closer to the local needs;

- Technical assistance to support the administration in its activities of management, supervision, evaluation and communication, control and audit.

In this context, Regione Sardegna intends to support the promotion and specialization of the educational University courses, specifically at doctoral level for the disciplinary areas of excellence in research and scientific and technological innovation. The goal is satisfying the needs in terms of competitive competences useful in the labour market, which requires increasingly qualified positions for the strategic sectors of the regional territory. This goal helps to create a smart growth for the development of an economy based on knowledge and innovation, in implementation of Europe 2020 Strategy.

Regione Sardegna intends to contribute to the enhancement of the advanced training offer, ensuring its coherence with the needs of the regional production system and with its Smart Specialization 2014-2020 Strategy, through the actions of Axis III "Education and Training" within the ROP ESF 2014-2020 - Thematic Objective: 10 "Investing in education, training and vocational training for skills and lifelong learning" - Investment Priority: 10ii) "Improving the quality and effectiveness of higher and equivalent level education, as well as its access, in order to increase the participation and success rate, in particular for disadvantaged groups" - Specific Objective: 10.5 "Increase of skills levels, participation and training success in University and/or equivalent education - Action of the Partnership Agreement: 10.5.12 "Actions for the enhancement of University or equivalent post-lauream level studies, aiming at promoting the collaboration among tertiary education, production system, research institutes, with particular reference to Ph.D. programmes in collaboration with enterprises and/or research institutes for scientific fields in line with the National Reform Programme and the regional Smart Specialization Strategy", according to Decision of the Regional Government no. 47/14 of 29th September 2015.