CFPs: Programme for Environment and Climate Action (LIFE) – Technical Assistance for Replication

Deadline: 18-Sep-24

The European Commission is pleased to launch a call for proposals for EU action grants in the fields of Environment under the Programme for Environment and Climate Action (LIFE).

The topic under this call for proposals concerns LIFE Technical Assistance for Replication Projects (TA-R). TA-R projects should provide technical assistance to prepare for and/or facilitate the up-scaling and replication of results from other projects funded by the LIFE Programme, its predecessor programmes or other EU funding programmes.

The LIFE Programme is structured in two fields and four sub-programmes:

Environment
- sub-programme Nature and Biodiversity
- sub-programme Circular Economy and Quality of Life
Climate Action
- sub-programme Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
- sub-programme Clean Energy Transition.

Objectives

Nature and Biodiversity
- to develop, demonstrate, promote and stimulate scale up of innovative techniques, methods and approaches (including nature-based solutions and ecosystem approach) for reaching the objectives of the EU legislation and policy on nature and biodiversity, and to contribute to the knowledge base and to the application of best practices, including through the support of the Natura 2000
- to support the development, implementation, monitoring and enforcement of EU legislation and policy on nature and biodiversity, including by improving governance at all levels, in particular through enhancing capacities of public and private actors and the involvement of civil society, also taking into due consideration the possible contributions provided by citizen science
- to catalyse the large-scale deployment of successful solutions/approaches for implementing EU legislation and policy on nature and biodiversity, by replicating results, integrating related objectives into other policies and into public and private sector practices, mobilising investment and improving access to finance.
Circular Economy and Quality of Life
- to develop, demonstrate and promote innovative techniques, methods and approaches for reaching the objectives of the EU legislation and policy on environment, and to contribute to the knowledge base and, where relevant, to the application of best practices
- to support the development, implementation, monitoring and enforcement of the EU legislation and policy on environment, including by improving governance at all levels, in particular through enhancing capacities of public and private actors and the involvement of civil society
- to catalyse the large-scale deployment of successful technical and policy-related solutions for implementing the EU legislation and policy on environment, by replicating results, integrating related objectives into other policies and into public and private sector practices, mobilising investment and improving access to finance.
The objectives of Technical Assistance – Replication (TA-R) projects are to facilitate and enable the upscaling or replication of results achieved by projects funded under the LIFE programme or, funded under another EU programme provided that these results fulfil the objectives of the LIFE programme.
Only proposals responding to the priorities of the sub-programmes ‘Nature and Biodiversity’ and/or ‘Circular Economy and Quality of Life’ as described above will be eligible for this call.

Funding Information

The estimated available call budget is EUR 6,500,000.
The maximum EU contribution is EUR 1,000,000 per project.
Depending on the number and quality of proposals, they expect to sign between 6 and 12 grant agreements.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible participants (eligible countries)
- Applications will only be considered eligible if their content corresponds wholly (or at least in part) to the topic description for which they are submitted.
- 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.
- Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register — before submitting the proposal — and will have to be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation). For the validation, they will be requested to upload documents showing legal status and origin.
- Other entities may participate in other consortium roles, such as associated partners, subcontractors, third parties giving in-kind contributions, etc.
Specific cases
- Exceptional funding — Entities from other countries (not listed above) are exceptionally eligible, if the granting authority considers their participation essential for the implementation of the action.
- Natural persons — Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of selfemployed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person).
- International organisations — International organisations are eligible. The rules on eligible countries do not apply to them.
- Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees for the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons.
- EU bodies — EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research can NOT be part of the consortium.
- Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’. Please note that if the action will be implemented by the members, they should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible).
- Countries currently negotiating association agreements — Beneficiaries from countries with ongoing negotiations may participate in the call and can sign grants if the negotiations are concluded before grant signature (with retroactive effect, if provided in the agreement).

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 EU Regulation 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).
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).