LIFE cooperation among energy communities
Grants for cross-country projects that strengthen energy-community federations or use peer learning to implement new community energy services. The 2026 round is closed.
Denne finansieringsmuligheten er foreløpig beskrevet på engelsk.
This LIFE Clean Energy Transition topic supports cooperation that helps energy communities professionalise their services and implement energy projects. Choose exactly one of its two scopes:
- Scope A strengthens “second-level communities”: coalitions serving several energy communities in a city, region or country. Projects can create a new coalition or develop an existing one, pooling services such as legal, technical, financial or administrative support.
- Scope B uses peer learning to help communities implement renewable heating and cooling, building energy efficiency, flexibility services or electromobility that supports renewable-energy integration. Flexibility means adjusting electricity use, storage or charging to system needs; it can include community storage, demand response, asset aggregation and peer-to-peer energy trading.
The grant funds the cooperation and assistance project. It cannot be passed on as financial support to other communities. The Commission indicated that an EU contribution up to €1.75 million would normally fit the topic, while expressly allowing applications and awards for other amounts. This is a planning figure, not a fixed grant ceiling.
The grant reimburses 95% of eligible project costs, using actual costs with specified unit-cost and flat-rate elements. Plan the remaining 5% of eligible costs from your own contribution, project income or other financial contributions. Eligible unpaid volunteer work can be budgeted using a fixed unit-cost allowance rather than actual expenditure. This allowance can increase reimbursement up to 100% of normal costs, meaning eligible costs other than volunteer allowances, and therefore reduce the cash contribution needed. The funding rate itself remains 95%. The grant cannot generate a profit.
Eligible categories include personnel, subcontracting, travel, services and equipment depreciation—the share of equipment cost allocated to its project use. Indirect costs use a 7% flat rate on eligible direct costs, excluding volunteer costs and any other exempt categories. Land purchases and financial support passed on to third parties are not eligible. Other free in-kind contributions cannot be declared as costs; eligible volunteer work follows the unit-cost rule above. Non-deductible VAT can qualify, except VAT paid by public bodies acting as public authorities. Subcontracting above 30% of total eligible costs must be justified. A separate project website is eligible only when justified by the project objectives.
Eligibility
Apply with at least three beneficiaries from three different eligible countries. Affiliated entities do not count towards that minimum.
Both scopes must support renewable energy communities or citizen energy communities as defined in the relevant EU directives. These are open, voluntary collective energy initiatives combining non-commercial aims with environmental and social community objectives. The official community guidance explains the EU frameworks and the need to follow their national implementation. Use existing legal-framework analyses from the European Energy Communities Facility and Citizen Energy Advisory Hub unless additional analysis has clear added value. New tools, databases or digital platforms also need a justified advantage over existing resources and a convincing route to wider use.
For Scope A, explain why the coalition is needed, its governance and how member communities exercise democratic control. Show demand for the service portfolio, target numbers and types of communities, operating costs and expected revenue after the grant ends. Services must be tested and operational by project completion, with initial implementation results from the community projects supported.
For Scope B, identify concrete community projects in at least one of the four focus areas. Established communities with experience in those areas and communities willing to start developing a project or activity in them must either participate directly in the consortium or demonstrate concrete commitment and involvement in the project. External experts may complement peer learning, but cannot replace it. Set measurable implementation objectives aligned with relevant local and national strategies.
Both scopes need backing from the stakeholders essential to delivery and a credible plan to involve others, such as municipalities, housing providers, financial institutions and social services. Inclusion and energy-poverty approaches are encouraged where relevant.
Applicants are public or private legal entities established in an EU country, including its overseas countries and territories, or in Iceland, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia or Ukraine. The coordinator must be established in an eligible country. Serbia is listed as negotiating association. Its entities may apply, but grant signature requires an association agreement in force by the end of selection and covering this call.
Sole traders can qualify even without separate legal personality. Ordinary individual applicants cannot. International organisations are eligible without the country-location restriction. Entities from other countries may exceptionally receive funding if the granting authority considers their participation essential; this does not waive the coordinator’s eligible-country requirement. Bodies without legal personality may exceptionally participate through representatives able to undertake obligations and provide equivalent protection of EU funds. EU bodies are excluded except the Commission’s Joint Research Centre. If an association’s members carry out project work, they must join as beneficiaries or affiliated entities for their costs to qualify.
Activities must take place in eligible countries. Activities elsewhere require a demonstrated need to achieve EU environmental and climate objectives and make interventions within eligible countries effective.
These geographic exceptions remain subject to the LIFE country list’s territorial restrictions for Israeli entities. Israeli companies, non-profits, regional/local authorities and other covered legal persons must have their registered physical address within Israel’s pre-1967 borders. National public authorities are exempt from that establishment rule, but must provide a communication address within those borders. Natural persons are exempt from these territorial rules; the call’s separate restriction to eligible sole traders still applies.
Grant-funded activities of covered Israeli legal entities, including national public authorities, must not take place, even partly, in the Golan Heights, Gaza Strip or West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The activity restriction has an exception for work benefiting protected persons under international humanitarian law in those territories and/or promoting the Middle East peace process in line with EU policy. It does not exclude an Israeli entity merely because it conducts unrelated activities there. Entities excluded under these rules cannot participate in any capacity under the LIFE country list. Meeting these territorial rules does not itself establish eligibility for LIFE’s exceptional third-country funding.
Applicants need sufficient finances, expertise and staff to deliver their work and contribution. EU exclusion decisions, insolvency, tax or social-security breaches, serious misconduct, fraud and material failures on earlier EU contracts or grants can prevent funding. EU sanctions and conditionality restrictions apply; Hungarian public-interest trusts established under Act IX of 2021 and entities they maintain cannot take funded roles.
The same action normally cannot receive another EU-budget grant, and the same cost cannot be declared twice. An EU operating grant can coexist only when this project is outside its work programme and costs are separately accounted for. Associated partners participate at their own expense. Completed projects cannot receive support; already-started work is assessed case by case, and pre-start-date costs are not reimbursed.
How to apply
- Status
- fristen er utløpt
- Åpner
- Søknadsfrist
- Vilkår for søknadsrunden
- Closed 2026 single-stage round; these terms do not establish a later intake.
The 2026 round closed on 16 September 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time. Use the official topic page to check published call updates and the Funding & Tenders Portal for any subsequent application opportunity.
For the documented round, participants needed EU Login accounts and registration to obtain a Participant Identification Code (PIC). Submit through the topic’s portal system using its current templates: Part A for participants and budget, Part B for the technical proposal (maximum 65 pages), Part C for project and impact data, plus the mandatory detailed budget and participant-information spreadsheets. Letters of support are optional. Applications may use any EU official language, but the abstract must be in English; English is recommended throughout.
Proposals undergo eligibility and capacity checks, expert assessment and ranking. An invitation to prepare a grant agreement is not a funding commitment. The agreement fixes the start, duration, budget and reporting obligations; multi-beneficiary teams also need a consortium agreement. Projects normally start after signature; a justified retrospective start can never precede proposal submission.
The normal initial advance is 30% of the maximum grant, payable 30 days after the agreement enters into force or a required guarantee is supplied, whichever is later. Further advances depend on reports; these topics have no interim cost-reimbursement payments. Payments go to the coordinator, with a final balance based on eligible expenditure. Excess advances must be repaid, and a guarantee or lower advance may be required.
Quantify communities and projects supported, people gaining skills and relevant implementation results at project end and five years later. Scope A also measures new coalitions and personalised support; Scope B measures the peer-learning process and concrete implementation. Include energy savings, renewable generation, emissions reductions and sustainable-energy investment.