The Objective 2 programme has been designed with 5 priority areas.  These priority areas are:

1. Priority 1: A new entrepreneurship Agenda
2. Priority 2: Bringing down barriers to Competitiveness
3. Priority 3: Supporting community- led economic and socialrenewal
4. Priority 4: Capturing the employment benefits of diversity
5. Priority 5: An Objective 2 Investment  Partnership

These priorities were decided based on prior research which identified 5 strategic objectives:

1. To stimulate a stronger business dynamism by assisting in the creation and survival of more, and better business start-ups
2. To improve the competitive performance of existing businesses by increasing the value-added of goods and services produced, and by increasing sales and turnover
3. To reduce levels of deprivation in the parts of the region most excluded from economic activity by using targeted, local community economic development initiatives as a key regeneration tool
4. To increase investment and economic growth by maximising the competitive edge of the Objective 2 region’s locational assets
5. To enhance the achievement and sustainability of these aims by underpinning them all with excellent skills and human resource actions

The Objective 2 programme is also closely linked to the Yorkshire Forward vision for the region’s future, which:
is sustainable

1. has empowered partnerships and communities
2. has a culture of enterprise and creativity
3. is self-reliant
4. has ladders of opportunity for all
5. has a strong positive identity

The Regional Economic Strategy (RES) is the full document that sets out the Yorkshire Forward vision in detail. 

There are also five cross-cutting themes that are required through the Objective 2 programme:

1. partnership
2. sustainability and balanced spatial development
3. social inclusion
4. geographic adaptation
5. creativity, innovation and technology