Deadline: 23-Sep-25
The European Commission is accepting applications for its Circular Economy and Zero Pollution which aim is to facilitate the transition toward a sustainable, circular, energy-efficient and climate-resilient economy, a toxic-free environment and at protecting, restoring and improving the quality of the environment in line with the European Green Deal and recent policy developments.
Objectives
- The specific objective is to cover one or more of the following topics (the description is further detailed in the sections afterwards):
- Circular Economy and Waste
- Recovery of Resources from Waste
- Circular Economy and the Environment
- Zero pollution and sustainable management of natural resources
- Air
- Water
- Soil
- Noise
- Chemicals
- Industrial Emissions and Safety
- A new European Bauhaus
- Circular Economy and Waste
Funding Information
- The indicative available call budget is EUR 81,000,000.
- Topic Budget: EUR 77,000,000 (of which EUR 4,000,000 for Bauhaus subtopic)
- Indicative range of project budgets: EUR 2-10 Mln
Eligible Activities
- Projects must comply with EU policy interests and priorities (such as environment, social, security, industrial and trade policy, etc). Projects must also respect EU values and European Commission policy regarding reputational matters (e.g. activities involving capacity building, policy support, awareness raising, communication, dissemination, etc)
- Financial support to third parties is allowed in LIFE-2025-SAP-ENV-ENVIRONMENT -Circular Economy and Zero Pollution and LIFE-2025-SAP-ENV-GOV — Environment governance for grants or similar forms of support and prizes under the following conditions:
- the calls must be open, published widely and conform to EU standards concerning transparency, equal treatment, conflict of interest and confidentiality
- Financial support to third parties will be accepted in projects which aim to assist entities outside the project partnership (e.g. non-profit organisations, local authorities or citizens groups) in the implementation or development of local initiatives that will contribute to the project’s objectives.
- Your project application must clearly specify why financial support to third parties is needed, how it will be managed and provide a list of the different types of activities for which a third party may receive financial support. The proposal must also clearly describe the results to be obtained.
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.
Ineligibility Criteria
- Applicants which are subject to an EU exclusion decision or in one of the following exclusion situations that bar them from receiving EU funding can NOT participate:
- bankruptcy, winding up, affairs administered by the courts, arrangement with creditors, suspended business activities or other similar procedures (including procedures for persons with unlimited liability for the applicant’s debts)
- in breach of social security or tax obligations (including if done by persons with unlimited liability for the applicant’s debts)
- guilty of grave professional misconduct (including if done by persons having powers of representation, decision-making or control, beneficial owners or persons who are essential for the award/implementation of the grant)
- committed fraud, corruption, links to a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorism-related crimes (including terrorism financing), child labour or human trafficking (including if done by persons having powers of representation, decision-making or control, beneficial owners or persons who are essential for the award/implementation of the grant)
- shown significant deficiencies in complying with main obligations under an EU procurement contract, grant agreement, prize, expert contract, or similar (including if done by persons having powers of representation, decision-making or control, beneficial owners or persons who are essential for the award/implementation of the grant)
- guilty of irregularities within the meaning of Article 1(2) of Regulation No 2988/95 (including if done by persons having powers of representation, decision-making or control, beneficial owners or persons who are essential for the award/implementation of the grant)
- created under a different jurisdiction with the intent to circumvent fiscal, social or other legal obligations in the country of origin or created another entity with this purpose (including if done by persons having powers of representation, decision-making or control, beneficial owners or persons who are essential for the award/implementation of the grant)
- intentionally and without proper justification resisted an investigation, check or audit carried out by an EU authorising officer (or their representative or auditor), OLAF, the EPPO, or the European Court of Auditors.
- Applicants will also be rejected if it turns out that:
- during the award procedure they misrepresented information required as a condition for participating or failed to supply that information
- they were previously involved in the preparation of the call and this entails a distortion of competition that cannot be remedied otherwise (conflict of interest).
For more information, visit EC.