Project Development Assistance for Sustainable Energy Investments Program

Deadline: 23-Sep-2025

Applications are now open for the Project Development Assistance for Sustainable Energy Investments Program.

Objectives

• Project Development Assistance (PDA) offers technical assistance to convert sustainable energy project ideas into actual investments. It supports public and private project developers in every step of the way to deliver sustainable energy investments of ambition and scale.
• PDA projects are expected to mobilise private investments and increase cost effectiveness of EU and national public budgetary resources by developing ready-to finance and bankable projects.
• PDA projects can also aim to implement investment concepts developed under the European City Facility (EUCF), or developed under the LIFE CET support to heating & cooling networks and industrial clusters, amongst other.

Scope 

• Project Development Assistance (PDA) will support project promoters in preparing and launching investment pipelines of sustainable energy projects, i.e. energy efficiency and/or renewable energy projects. The call topic aims to provide and build technical, economic and legal skills and expertise for project developers needed for the successful project development and implementation. Activities can include project bundling, technical studies, energy audits, assessing financing options, legal advice, tendering procedure preparation, outreach and engagement etc.
• Proposals for this topic can be submitted by public or private project promoters such as public authorities or their groupings, public/private infrastructure operators and bodies, energy agencies, energy service companies, retail chains, large property owners, services or industry. PDA projects must lead to the actual launch of sustainable energy investments within the project duration, demonstrating a leverage factor of at least 15 compared to the technical assistance grant (at least 10 for exclusive investments in residential buildings). In this context, proposals need to identify the initially envisaged investment pipeline.
• Proposals could target sectors including:
  • Buildings 
    • Existing residential buildings, including the rental sector, social housing, or district level renovation approaches.
    • Existing non-residential buildings, such as public buildings, hospitals, academies, defence facilities or commercial buildings.
  • District heating/cooling networks 
    • Decarbonisation and modernisation of existing district heating/cooling networks, including the extension of existing networks provided that the extended networks are fully based on low-temperature renewable energy or waste heat.
  • Infrastructure
    • Existing public infrastructure such as water/wastewater services or lighting.
  • Industry 
    • Industry, businesses and services, including SMEs or industrial clusters, clearly advancing beyond business-as-usual approaches.
  • Renewables 
    • Renewable energy production by energy communities and other citizen-led initiatives, clearly advancing beyond business-as-usual approaches.
  • Mobility 
    • Clean and energy efficient urban transport infrastructure.
    • Low emission urban mobility solutions including conversion of urban areas for soft mobility or non-motorised transport.
    • Integration of smart recharging infrastructures in buildings, including in multifamily buildings.

Funding Information

• The estimated available call budget is EUR 91 400 000.
  • LIFE-2025-CET-PDA: EUR 8 400 000

Expected Impact

• Proposals should quantify their results and impacts using the indicators provided for the topic, when they are relevant for the proposed activities. They should also propose indicators which are specific to the proposed activities. Proposals are not expected to address all the listed impacts and indicators. The results and impacts should be quantified for the end of the project and for 5 years after the end of the project.
• The indicators for this topic include:
  • Number of staff with increased skills within project organisations.
  • Investments in sustainable energy (energy efficiency and renewable energy) launched by the end of the project.
  • Number of organisations with increased capacity to deliver investments and/or tailored organisational structures.
  • Number of jobs directly and indirectly created.

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.