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European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency

2020 LIFE Calls for proposals

Results of the 2020 Calls for proposals

LIFE traditional projects: Press release and annex with summaries of all the projects per country (all EU languages) - 25 November 2021

LIFE Integrated projects: Press release and annex with summaries of all the projects per country (all EU languages) - 17 February 2022

The call for proposal pages include timetables and application packages, listed by project type and sub-programme (environment or climate action). For general information on who can apply, how to apply, grant agreement templates and FAQs, please see the respective sections.

The recording and the presentation of the EU LIFE Information Day and Networking event (30 April 2020) is now available.

For more information on LIFE funding for climate change adaptation projects, watch now the recording of our dedicated webinar.

New features relating to the COVID-19 pandemic

Dear LIFE applicants,

During these times of the COVID-19 pandemic, our lives have changed significantly. Authorities have enacted mitigation strategies, such as social distancing. Just like us, many of you are working from home. We are aware that these measures may well have affected your lives. Please do all you can to protect yourselves and your families and avoid taking any unnecessary risks.

We understand that for many of you, it will be a challenge to participate in this call for proposals. We have therefore decided to immediately introduce a number of measures to lessen the impact of the restrictions we all have to live with.

Among the various measures, you will notice that some address the submission process, while others open up new possibilities in terms of project design.

New measures

All submission deadlines are being extended by one month.

The first pre-financing amounts for traditional projects have been increased from 30% to 40% of the Union Contribution.

Private entities in the 2020 call are no longer contractually obliged to launch ‘open’ tenders for contracts above 139 000 euros. However, when purchasing goods and services, they will need to comply with the ‘value for money’ and ‘absence of conflict of interest’ requirements (their internal procurement rules will need to be respected).  

All projects will be allowed to financially support local initiatives that may contribute to the project objective. This support will take the form of grants that the beneficiary may give (within certain limits) to third parties responsible for such initiatives. In this way, we hope to also facilitate access to LIFE financing to very small local groups that do not have the capacity to act as an associated beneficiary in the project, but could play a role in reaching the project’s objectives.

A special section on start-up companies has been integrated into the guidelines. In this section, we invite larger companies to consider their LIFE project as a potential incubator for start-ups. Normally start-ups don't qualify as a coordinating beneficiary due to their limited financial capacity. They could however be a key player (owner of know-how or knowledge) in partnership with a larger company. In this way, the start-up may be given the chance to move to a full market development, and the larger company would gain access to the knowledge, while limiting the risk thanks to the LIFE support.

This year, every traditional or integrated LIFE project and each type of beneficiary will be able to request funding for the full cost of durable goods if they fulfil specific conditions. These conditions include that the goods are intensively used during the project, that they are definitively and exclusively assigned to the same objectives and purpose foreseen by the project, and that they are used for their entire economic life.

All LIFE projects may now also consider in kind contribution voluntary work under “personnel costs” in the form of pre-defined unit costs up to certain limits. This will help projects reach their objectives more effectively by involving volunteers.

A last message

We know that LIFE's key priorities are the environment and climate, yet these have undoubtedly strong links with human health. Certain projects or specific actions could directly or indirectly target problems linked with the management of this type of pandemic. Considering this global challenge we are confronted with, we believe that the LIFE programme must do its utmost to actively contribute to finding solutions.

We therefore invite each applicant to critically look at their project's objectives and activities in order to detect any element that could directly or indirectly improve our collective ability to avoid, mitigate, manage and recover in the case of similar future crisis. We believe every contribution counts and welcome proposals that, while complying with the programme's priorities, may contribute to this collective effort.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your passion, your ideas and your commitment.

With people like you, we know we can succeed!

Thank you,

The LIFE programme team

Environment sub-programme

Climate action sub-programme