LIFE climate plan implementation grants

• Apply as a partnership of at least two beneficiaries: organisations that sign the grant agreement and receive funding. Affiliated entities are organisations linked to a beneficiary that can receive funding but do not sign the agreement themselves; they do not count towards this minimum. The authority responsible for implementing the plan should coordinate the project; in a well-justified case another beneficiary may coordinate, but that authority must still be part of the partnership. Its role must be clear at the concept-note stage.
• Applicants are public or private legal entities established in EU Member States, including overseas countries and territories, or eligible LIFE participating countries. The published participating-country list includes Iceland, Moldova, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Ukraine. Norway and Liechtenstein do not participate. The coordinator must be in an eligible country.
• International organisations are eligible without the country restriction. Sole traders can participate even without a separate legal personality. Other entities without legal personality may participate exceptionally if their representatives can take legal obligations and provide equivalent guarantees protecting EU financial interests. Entities from other countries need the granting authority to consider their participation essential. Serbia is negotiating association; participation and grant signature depend on the call’s association conditions.
• If an association or interest grouping applies and its members carry out the work, those members must also participate as beneficiaries or affiliated entities for their costs to be eligible.
• Completed projects are excluded. Projects already underway are assessed case by case. The project normally starts after grant signature; an earlier start needs exceptional justification and can never precede proposal submission. Costs for work before that permitted start cannot be reimbursed.
• Activities normally take place in eligible countries. Work elsewhere must be necessary for EU environmental and climate objectives and for effective interventions in eligible countries.
• The targeted plan must be approved by the relevant authorities by full-proposal submission. A draft must accompany the concept note if it is not yet approved. Where submission to the European Commission is legally required, the Commission must have reviewed the plan and found it at least acceptable.
• Urban projects must cover several cities, support implementation of the whole strategy or action plan, and include measures to bring climate considerations into private investment decisions. Urban plans should combine adaptation and emissions reduction.
• Mobilise at least one non-LIFE funding source for complementary actions. At full-proposal submission, supply at least one letter of intent signed by the funding authority confirming funding availability or commitment. Other LIFE projects do not fulfil this requirement. Complementary funding granted or spent before this call is normally excluded; justified exceptions are possible, but funding granted or spent before 24 April 2025 is never accepted as mobilised funding.
• You need stable resources to deliver the project and pay your share, plus relevant skills and experience with projects of comparable size and nature. The normal coordinator financial-capacity check excludes public bodies, international organisations and requested grants of no more than EUR 60,000.
• Involve the stakeholders needed to implement the plan. Deliver a plan for training and retaining knowledge, and an After-LIFE plan setting out the actions and funding for full implementation after the project. Clean-up work that the responsible polluter is required to pay for under the polluter-pays principle is not eligible.
• EU bodies cannot join, except the European Commission Joint Research Centre. EU restrictive measures exclude participation in any role; EU conditionality measures exclude funded roles, including the affected Hungarian public-interest trusts and entities they maintain. Applicants must also pass the call’s exclusion checks.
• Do not fund the same action or cost item under two EU grants, except where the EU Synergies rules allow it. Separate complementary actions must have clearly distinct costs. An EU operating grant can be combined only when this project is outside its work programme and the accounting keeps costs separate. Grants cannot generate a profit; for-profit organisations must declare revenues.

Statut

clos

Ouverture

21 avr. 2026

Clôture

3 sept. 2026 · 17:00:00 UTC+02:00

Conditions de cette période de candidature

• Concept-note intake closed. Only successful first-stage applicants invited by CINEA may submit full proposals. The full-proposal deadline is indicative: 4 March 2027 at 17:00 Brussels time.

The 2026 concept-note intake closed on 3 September 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time. The full-proposal deadline is stated as 4 March 2027 at 17:00 Brussels time and is indicative. Only proposals invited after successful first-stage evaluation can proceed; this is not a new intake for first-time applicants.

Before submitting, confirm that the work proposed for LIFE funding is not already funded, and would not be more appropriately funded, through other EU funds.

If invited, submit the full proposal through the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System, using the invitation and the forms inside that system. Participants need EU Login accounts and registration in the Participant Register, giving a participant identification code (PIC); beneficiaries and affiliated entities must be validated. Include the approved plan, implementation overview, complementary funding plan and declarations, detailed budget and participant information. Use the written question-and-answer phase for successful concept-note applicants and check call updates from CINEA. Submission is complete only when the Portal sends the confirmation email.