2020 LIFE Call for Proposals for Traditional Projects on Environment and Resource Efficiency

Deadline: 14 July 2020

LIFE Environment and Resource Efficiency aims specifically at contributing to the implementation, updating and development of European Union environmental policy and legislation, including the integration of the environment into other policies, thereby contributing to sustainable development. Furthermore, actions financed must have a European added value and be complementary to those actions that can be financed under other European Union funds during the period 2014-20.

Priorities

The priority area Environment and Resource Efficiency focuses on:

• developing, testing and demonstrating policy or management approaches, best practices and solutions to environmental challenges, and in support of resource efficiencyrelated policy and legislation, including the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe.
• improving the knowledge base for the development, implementation, assessment, monitoring and evaluation of Union environmental policy and legislation, and for the assessment and monitoring of the factors, pressures and responses that impact on the environment within and outside the Union.

Thematic Priorities

The thematic priorities for each of the following five sectors:

• Thematic priorities for Water, including the marine environment
  • Activities for the implementation of the specific objectives for water set out in the Roadmap for a Resource-Efficient Europe and the 7th Environment Action Programme, in particular:
    • • integrated approaches for the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive;
      • Floods Directive;
      • Marine Strategy Framework Directive;
      • activities to ensure safe and efficient use of water resources, improving quantitative water management, preserving a high level of water quality and avoiding misuse and deterioration of water resources.
• Thematic priorities for Waste
  • Activities for the implementation of the specific objectives for waste set out in the Roadmap for a Resource-Efficient Europe and the 7th Environment Action Programme, in particular:
    • the implementation and development of Union waste legislation, with particular emphasis on the first steps of the Union waste hierarchy (prevention, re-use and recycling);
    • resource efficiency and lifecycle impact of products, consumption patterns and dematerialisation of the economy.
• Thematic priorities for Resource Efficiency, including soil and forests, and green and circular economy
  • Activities for the implementation of the Roadmap for a Resource-Efficient Europe and of the 7th Environment Action Programme that are not covered by other thematic priorities, in particular:
    • industrial symbiosis and knowledge transfer, and development of new models for the shift towards a circular and green economy;
    • Soil Thematic Strategy (Commission Communication of 22 September 2006 entitled “Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection”) with special emphasis on mitigation and compensation of soil sealing, and improved land use;
    • forest monitoring and information systems, and to prevent forest fires.
• Thematic priorities for Environment and Health, including chemicals and noise
  • Activities for the implementation of the specific objectives for environment and health set out in the 7th Environment Action Programme, in particular:
    • Regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH);
    • Environmental Noise Directive;
    • Seveso III Directive.
• Thematic priorities for Air quality and emissions, including urban environment
  • Activities for the implementation of the specific objectives for air and emissions in the Roadmap for a Resource-Efficient Europe and the 7th Environment Action Programme, in particular:
    • integrated approaches to the implementation of Air quality legislation;
    • facilitate compliance with Union air quality and related air emissions standards including the National Emissions Ceilings Directive;
    • enhanced implementation of the Industrial Emissions Directive, with a special emphasis on improving BAT definition and implementation process, ensuring easy public access to information and enhancing the contribution of the IED to innovation.

Projects

According to the LIFE Regulation, LIFE Environment and Resource Efficiency projects must be demonstration or pilot projects, which are defined as follows:

• “pilot projects” means projects that apply a technique or method that has not been applied or tested before, or elsewhere, and that offer potential environmental or climate advantages compared to current best practice and that can subsequently be applied on a larger scale to similar situations;
• “demonstration projects” means projects that put into practice, test, evaluate and disseminate actions, methodologies or approaches that are new or unknown in the project’s specific context, such as geographical, ecological, socio-economic, and that could be applied elsewhere in similar circumstances.

Eligibility Criteria

Any entity registered in the EU can make a proposal for LIFE traditional, integrated, preparatory, and technical assistance projects under the sub-programmes for environment.

You could be a:

• public body operating under a national government’s authority, e.g. local authority, national administration etc.
• private commercial organisation
• private non-commercial organisation (NGOs etc.)

For more information, visit https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/section/life/2020-life-call-proposals-traditional-projects-environment-and-resource-efficiency