BUILD UP Skills – National Platforms on Energy Efficiency Skills for the Clean Energy Transition Program

Deadline: 23-Sep-2025

The European Commission (EC) is pleased to announce that applications for the BUILD UP Skills – National Platforms on Energy Efficiency Skills for the Clean Energy Transition Program are now open.

Objectives

• The BUILD UP Skills initiative aims to increase the number of skilled professionals (blue- and white-collars) along the construction and renovation value chains. BUILD UP Skills has also engaged public authorities, building owners and tenants, to create awareness about the importance of a skilled workforce.
• BUILD UP Skills supports the objectives of the EU Pact for Skills, and especially the Large-Scale Partnership for the Construction Ecosystem, which aims to have 30% workers participating in upskilling or reskilling actions annually by 2030, as well as the Renewable Energy skills Large-Scale partnership.
• The projects supported since 2011 have set up a framework to increase the skills level of energy efficiency professionals needed across Europe to deliver energy renovations and nearly-Zero Energy Buildings at the scale implied by the EU targets for energy efficiency and energy performance of buildings. To develop the national skills roadmaps articulating these national upskilling actions, the BUILD UP Skills projects established national platforms gathering key stakeholders. In a first phase, all EU Member States developed such a platform and roadmap. More recently, 15 Member States had the opportunity to expand their platform and update their national roadmap with a 2030 perspective.
• In addition, supported projects piloted innovative approaches to facilitate the roll-out of skills, including qualification and training schemes addressing emerging skills needs, innovative approaches to training, or measures to increase the demand for skills.

Scope 

• Proposals submitted under this topic should focus on only one of the two scopes below:
  • Scope A: Supporting operations of existing national skills platforms
    • For eligible countries where the national platform is already running, proposals should:
      • continue to operate the national platform as a permanent structure gathering national experts from all relevant stakeholder organisations, including, but not limited to government authorities responsible for education and energy, professional chambers, education and training providers, trade unions, academia. The platform should focus on bringing to light the skills dimension of the clean energy transition to the relevant policy makers and decision-makers from the private sector, running regular working groups with relevant stakeholders focused on specific issues.
      • implement the measures listed in the action plan of the 2030 national roadmap recently designed. There should be a specific focus on securing funding for the large-scale roll-out out of the needed qualification and training schemes, including those piloted by previous projects, with a view to achieve a measurable impact on the annual training rate of professionals in the country.
      • design a large-scale national communication and awareness raising campaign
      • to promote the contribution of skilled professionals for the clean energy transition,
      • to make the case for the upskilling of energy efficiency professionals and
      • to attract more people to energy efficiency professions, specifically for those occupations and skills where a gap has been identified by Member States in the national reports submitted under Article 28(6) EED and in the national roadmap and action plan when appropriate.
  • Scope B: (Re)establishing national skills platforms
    • For other eligible countries not listed under Scope A, proposals should:
      • (re)establish the national platform and secure involvement of key stakeholders. A good starting point could be the work supported under the Intelligent Energy Europe programme during which a first group of national stakeholders was mobilised, but this should be expanded, also considering other energy efficiency professions listed under Article 28(1) EED. The platform should operate as a permanent structure gathering national experts from all relevant stakeholder organisations, including, but not limited to government authorities responsible for education and energy, professional chambers, education and training providers, trade unions and academia. The platform should focus on the skills dimension of the clean energy transition and run regular thematic working groups with relevant stakeholders, focused on specific issues.
      • carry out skills intelligence activities (including evaluation of the effectiveness of any previous national roadmap, market research, data collection, analysis of existing labour statistics and databases, targeted interviews with national stakeholders, participatory workshops, survey) to provide a comprehensive analysis of the national building, energy efficiency and education sectors, as well as a detailed mapping of the gaps in terms of workforce (occupations), skills and qualifications. The resulting ‘status quo analysis’ should cover initial education, vocational education as well as higher education.
      • design a national roadmap to address the identified gaps and barriers. The national roadmap should notably include: a set of priority measures related to the various professions to meet the defined targets; an action plan including implementation timing for the identified measures; an identification of actors, resources and financing needed to drive the implementation; synergies with support mechanisms increasing the demand for skills in the energy efficiency sector, such as one-stop shops for homeowners or public procurement rules; measures and indicators to monitor the progress of the proposed activities.
      • promote widely the results of the status quo analysis and the measures in the roadmap and make the necessary arrangements to pave the way for the roadmap’s implementation. Proposals should notably include activities ensuring the official endorsement of the roadmap by relevant national stakeholders, including public authorities.
        • design a large-scale national communication and awareness raising campaign
        • to promote the contribution of skilled professionals for the clean energy transition,
        • to make the case for the upskilling of energy efficiency professionals and
        • to attract more people to energy efficiency professions, specifically for those occupations and skills where a gap has been identified by Member States in the national reports submitted under the Article 28(6) EED and in the national roadmap and action plan developed, when appropriate.

Funding Information

• The estimated available call budget is EUR 91 400 000.
• LIFE-2025-CET-BUILDSKILLS EUR 6 000 000

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
  • be legal entities (public or private bodies)
    • be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
      • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
      • non-EU countries:
        • listed EEA countries and countries associated to the LIFE Programme
  • the coordinator must be established in an eligible country.

For more information, visit EC.