The European Commission has launched a new call for proposals under the LIFE Programme on 28 April, with application deadlines in September 2017.

In 2017, there is more than €390 million available in funding, in particular, for:

• Environmental technologies and solutions (including close-to-market)
• Climate change adaptation and mitigation measures,
• Nature conservation and biodiversity projects, and
• Climate and environmental governance and information initiatives.

For both LIFE sub-programmes,  Environment and Climate Action, the 2017 call for proposals will cover action grants for:

Traditional projects, which include best-practice, demonstration, pilot or information, awareness and dissemination projects;

Integrated projects, which support the implementation on a large territorial scale (regional, multi-regional, national or trans-national scale) environmental plans/climate action plans or strategies;

Technical Assistance projects, which provide, by way of action grants, financial support to help applicants prepare integrated projects.

In 2017 call for proposals, the Commission is particularly interested in close-to-market projects, which:

• propose a new and demonstrative solution with clear environmental and/or climate benefits in the fields of waste management, circular economy, resource efficiency, climate change mitigation, and water;
• have a level of technical and business readiness allowing them to implement their solution in close-to-market conditions, at industrial or commercial scale, during the project duration.

Eligibility and budget

A proposal may be submitted by any legal person registered in the European Union. Application from public bodies, private commercial organisations and private non-commercial organisations (NGOs) are welcomed.

The total budget for project action grants in this year’s call is over €373 million. Of this, over €290 million is foreseen for the sub-programme for Environment and over €82 million for the sub-programme for Climate Action.

The deadlines for submissions are in September 2017.

More information and official documents are available on the Life Programme Website