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LIFE call for proposals

19/09/2024

LIFE supports innovative, impactful projects with demonstrable impacts and best practices that can be replicated and scaled up elsewhere in Europe. The main areas are Nature and biodiversity; Circular economy and quality of life; Climate change mitigation and adaptation; Clean energy transition.

Deadline: 5 to 19 September according to the call

LIFE programme will fund different types of projects and within each type, specific topics might be addressed. Below, we detailed the type of projects and the topics within each type with the indication of the total budget available and the reference that will allow the specific search in the EU Funding & Tender Portal.

Standard Action Projects (SAPs): Projects, other than strategic integrated projects, strategic nature projects or technical assistance projects, that pursue the specific objectives of the LIFE programme.

Strategic Nature Projects (SNAPs): Projects that support the achievement of Union nature and biodiversity objectives by implementing coherent programmes of action in Member States in order to mainstream those objectives and priorities into other policies and financing instruments, including through coordinated implementation of the prioritised action frameworks adopted pursuant to Directive 92/43/EEC.

Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs): Projects that implement, on a regional, multi-regional, national or transnational scale, environmental or climate strategies or action plans developed by Member States’ authorities and required by specific environmental, climate or relevant energy legislation or policy of the Union, while ensuring that stakeholders are involved and promoting coordination with and mobilisation of at least one other Union, national or private funding source.

Technical Assistance Projects (TA): Projects that support the development of capacity for participation in standard action projects, the preparation of strategic nature projects and strategic integrated projects, the preparation for accessing other Union financial instruments or other measures necessary for preparing the upscaling or replication of results from other projects funded by the LIFE programme, its predecessor programmes or other Union programmes, with a view to pursuing the LIFE programme objectives set out in Article 3; such projects can also include capacity-building related to the activities of Member States’ authorities for effective participation in the LIFE programme.

Coordination and Support Action Grants (CSA) for clean energy transition sub-programme: Project that address needs to i) structure stakeholder communities; ii) support dissemination and exploitation of research or innovation projects; iii) exploit synergies of scale among projects; iv) raise awareness in specific areas; v) support technological visions (e.g. road-mapping, user cases, etc.) and outreach (e.g. events, publications, etc.); vi) promote international cooperation with specific regions and/or technological areas for any of the above-mentioned activities; vii) undertake other activities similar in nature to those above (i.e., this is not an exhaustive list).

  • Clean energy transition plans and strategies in municipalities and regions (LIFE-2024-CET-LOCAL) – €7 million
  • Towards an effective implementation of key legislation in the field of sustainable energy (LIFE-2024-CET-POLICY) – €6 million
  • Real world energy consumption of energy-related products (LIFE-2024-CET-PRODUCTS) – €2 million
  • Energy Performance of Buildings – Creating the conditions to make renovation faster, deeper, smarter, service and data-driven (LIFE-2024-CET-BETTERRENO) – €6 million
  • Supporting the clean energy transition of the European businesses (LIFE-2024-CET-BUSINESS) – ~ €5 million
  • BUILD UP Skills – Upskilling and reskilling interventions for building decarbonization (LIFE-2024-CET-BUILDSKILLS) – €6,5 million
  • Supporting the roll-out of high-quality heat pump installations (LIFE-2024-CET-HEATPUMPS) – €6 million
  • Supporting district heating and cooling (LIFE-2024-CET-DHC) – €4 million
  • Crowding in private finance (LIFE-2024-CET-PRIVAFIN) – €4 million
  • Integrated services for clean energy transition in buildings (LIFE-2024-CET-OSS) – €7 million
  • Project Development Assistance for sustainable energy investments (LIFE-2024-CET-PDA) – €6 million
  • Alleviating household energy poverty in Europe (LIFE-2024-CET-ENERPOV) – €6 million
  • Developing support mechanisms for Energy Communities (LIFE-2024-CET-ENERCOM) – €7 million
  • Facilitation structures for the renovation of public buildings (LIFE-2024-CET-RENOPUB) – €3,5 million

Others: LIFE Preparatory Projects (addressing ad hoc Legislative and Policy Priorities – PLP) (LIFE-2024-PLP) – €9 million

Duration of the projects

The project duration must correspond to what is necessary to complete all the project’s actions and to reach all its objectives. As a reference, SAPs last on average 3-5 years. Please note that the call document (section 10) may indicate a maximum project duration. 

Budget

The project budget depends on the project type and the Call you apply to. Please carefully read the Call Document section on Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements. As a reference, for SAPs there are no specifications for project budgets. LIFE has co-funded large ambitious projects with total costs of more than €5 million several times in the past. However, proposals for small projects with total costs below €500 000 have rarely been selected in the evaluation due to the limited output and consequently a low added value.

Supporting information

More information on each call and applications can be found in the EU Funding & Tender Portal (follow the link for the specific topic).

You can check the FAQs on this program here.

By the end of April, there were info days dedicated to the LIFE calls. If you did not attend, you can watch the recordings here (soon available). For recordings  on previous calls, you can see the LIFE YouTube channel.

If you want to apply you should analise previously awarded proposals here. This tool also allows you to make some benchmarking.

CESAM has presently 4 ongoing LIFE projects:

If you are considering to apply, please get in touch with us (cesam-gesciencia@ua.pt).