This 2-day intensive training focuses on State aid issues essential for management and implementation of EU Funds for the running and upcoming programming period. Participants will receive first-hand information from the European Commission, academia and national high-level representatives on:State Aid Modernisation Initiative – state of play and its impacts for regional policy and the upcoming programming periodState aid in infrastructure projects – the Leipzig-Halle judgement and changes in the assessment of State aid-compatibility of running and planned infrastructure projectsState aid for financial engineering instruments – the State aid requirements for the non-grant financial instruments in Cohesion programmesState aid for R&D – the definitions of a “research organisation” and “economic activity” as well as the State aid regulation for the use of research resultsThe programme will be completed with an interactive session and discussion round on how to include the State aid regulation into the Operational Programmes being drafted for the programming period 2014-2020. The speakers:  Prof. Dr. Phedon A. Nicolaides, Jan Tinbergen Professor and Director of Studies at the College of Europe in Bruges, BelgiumPéter Staviczky, Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU, Brussels, BelgiumBernhard Michael von Wendland, Unit for R&D, Innovation and risk capital, DG Competition, European CommissionStephen Blair, Director of the Southern & Eastern Regional Assembly, Waterford, Ireland Nuria Mariñas-Rojo, Case Handler, Unit for Regional Aid, DG Competition, European Commission   The training is targeted at:Experts on ERDF, ESF, CF, EARDF and EFF implementing the running Operational Programme and working on the programmes for the programming period 2014-20Beneficiaries of Structural FundsState aid experts fromnational authoritiesLawyers and consultants specialised in public affairsFor more information on the agenda, the list of speakers and participation fees, please visit our website.