LIFE-Pro­gramme 2021 – 2027

600 mil­lion euros in EU fund­ing is avail­able for nature, envir­on­ment­al and cli­mate pro­tec­tion, meas­ures to strengthen biod­iversity, the cir­cu­lar eco­nomy and to increase energy efficiency.

The EU’s LIFE pro­gramme pro­motes envir­on­ment­ally friendly and innov­at­ive solu­tions to advance sus­tain­able envir­on­ment­al and cli­mate policy in Europe. It bridges the gap between research and prac­tic­al imple­ment­a­tion and sup­ports pro­jects in areas such as nature con­ser­va­tion, biod­iversity, cli­mate pro­tec­tion, energy effi­ciency, air qual­ity, the cir­cu­lar eco­nomy, water and waste man­age­ment. The aim is to estab­lish best prac­tices and improve envir­on­ment­al man­age­ment in a sus­tain­able manner.

The LIFE pro­gramme 2021 – 2027 is divided into the fol­low­ing four sub-programmes:

• Nature and Biodiversity
• Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy and Qual­ity of Life
• Cli­mate Change Mit­ig­a­tion and Adaptation
• Clean Energy Trans­ition (CET)
• Action-based grants are awar­ded for the fol­low­ing types of projects:
• Pilot pro­jects,
• Demon­stra­tion projects,
• Best prac­tice projects,
• stra­tegic integ­rated projects,
• tech­nic­al assist­ance projects,
• capa­city-build­ing projects,
• pre­par­at­ory projects,
• oper­at­ing grants for envir­on­ment­al NGOs,
• inform­a­tion, aware­ness-rais­ing and dis­sem­in­a­tion pro­jects,
  oth­er meas­ures neces­sary to achieve the gen­er­al object­ives of the programme.

The LIFE pro­gramme can also fin­ance Com­mis­sion activ­it­ies that pro­mote the intro­duc­tion, imple­ment­a­tion and dis­sem­in­a­tion of Uni­on envir­on­ment­al and cli­mate policy strategies and legis­la­tion. These include:

• inform­a­tion and communication,
• stud­ies, sur­veys, mod­el­ling and scen­ario development,
• pre­par­a­tion, imple­ment­a­tion, mon­it­or­ing, review and eval­u­ation of
• pro­jects, policies, pro­grammes and legislation,
• work­shops, con­fer­ences and meetings,
• net­work­ing and plat­forms for best prac­tice, and
• oth­er activ­it­ies neces­sary to achieve the gen­er­al object­ives of the programme.

Fund­ing is provided in par­tic­u­lar through grants or pub­lic pro­cure­ment con­tracts. The amount of fund­ing depends on the type of action planned. LIFE pro­jects receive an advance pay­ment from the EU at the start of the pro­ject peri­od. In most cases, there is a second advance pay­ment (inter­im pay­ment) dur­ing the pro­ject peri­od, so that the imple­menters only have to make a small fin­an­cial advance pay­ment at the end of the pro­ject period.

The pro­jects receive an advance pay­ment from the EU at the start of the pro­ject peri­od.
The pro­gramme is imple­men­ted on the basis of mul­tian­nu­al work pro­grammes with a dur­a­tion of four or three years. As part of the work pro­grammes, the Com­mis­sion pub­lishes annu­al calls for pro­pos­als for the sub-areas of the pro­gramme. These can be found on the LIFE website.