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  1. An institution, body, office or agency established by or based on the Treaty on European Union and the Treaties establishing the European Communities.

    All education and training facilities for people of different age groups.

    An intergovernmental organization having legal personality under public international law or a specialized agency established by such an international organization. An international organization, the majority of whose members are Member States or Associated Countries and whose main objective is to promote scientific and technological cooperation in Europe, is an International Organization of European Interest.

    A person with legal rights and obligations. Unlike a legal entity, a natural person does not have a legal act (e.g. association, limited liability company, etc.).

    An NPO is an institution or organization which, by virtue of its legal form, is not profit-oriented or which is required by law not to distribute profits to its shareholders or individual members. An NGO is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that does not represent business interests. Pursues a common purpose for the benefit of society.

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    Any government or other public administration, including public advisory bodies, at the national, regional or local level.

    A research institution is a legal entity established as a non-profit organization whose main objective is to conduct research or technological development. A college/university is a legal entity recognized by its national education system as a university or college or secondary school. It may be a public or private institution.

    A microenterprise, a small or medium-sized enterprise (business) as defined in EU Recommendation 2003/361. To qualify as an SME for EU funding, an enterprise must meet certain conditions, including (a) fewer than 250 employees and (b) an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million. These ceilings apply only to the figures for individual companies.

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  1. Governance, partnership: Projects aimed at increasing the application of multilevel and transnational or cross-border governance, designing and testing appropriate governance structures and mechanisms. Also cooperation between public institutions on any theme.

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    Activities focussing on agricultural products, organic farming, horticulture, as well as forest management and wood products; furthermore the development of the food sector, food chains, organic food production, and seafood products and any topics related to animals and fishing.

    Agriculture and fisheries and forestry: Projects focussing on agricultural products (i.e. fruits, meat, olives, etc.), organic farming, horticulture, as well as forest management and wood products. Also the development of the agro-food sector, food chains, organic food production, and seafood products. Any topics related to animals (i.e. health, management) and fishing (i.e. sustainable fishery, aquaculture).

    Soil and air quality: Projects that deal with any topic against soil and air pollution, except water pollution, for example, reduction of soil and air contamination, pollution-management systems, but also prevention and eradication of soil erosion, new ways of improving air quality (also indoors) and soil/air knowledge in general.

    Climate change and biodiversity projects assisting mitigation and adaption to climate change and environmental impacts of climate change. Development of low carbon technologies and strategies, reduction of CO2 emissions from all sectors. Promotion of biodiversity, new instruments to enhance biodiversity and natural protection.

    Soil and air quality projects that deal with any topic against soil and air pollution, except water pollution, for example, reduction of soil and air contamination, pollution-management systems, but also prevention and eradication of soil erosion, new ways of improving air quality (also indoors) and soil/air knowledge in general.

    Water management projects about management and distribution of drinking water, integrated sustainable water management, monitoring systems for water supply and improving drinking water quality; also water treatment (wastewater), in particular, innovative technologies to improve wastewater, treatments in the purification of industrial and domestic wastewater and water reuse policies. Waterways, lakes and rivers: This deals with any topics on waterways, lakes and rivers, from improving water quality, protecting and developing of ecosystems or sustainable wetland management.

    Activities that protect, promote and enhance cultural and natural heritage, increase the attractiveness through preservation and valorisation of common cultural and natural heritage in a sustainable manner, and improve and develop cultural and natural heritage objects, services and products. Cultural heritage management, art and culture, (maritime) heritage routes, access to cultural and natural heritage. Also all topics on cultural services such as festivals, concerts, art workshops.

    Cultural heritage and arts projects that protect, promote and enhance cultural and natural heritage, increase the attractiveness through preservation and valorisation of common cultural and natural heritage in a sustainable manner, and improve and develop cultural and natural heritage objects, services and products. Cultural heritage management, art and culture, (maritime) heritage routes, access to cultural and natural heritage. Also all topics on cultural services such as festivals, concerts, art workshops.

    Tourism projects dealing with the promotion of natural assets, and the protection and development of natural heritage, as well as increasing the touristic attractiveness through the better use of natural, cultural and historical heritage. Also projects about improved tourist services/products, development of ecotourism models, tourism development strategies.

    Sustainable management of natural resources projects focussing on the protection, promotion and valorization, and sustainable management and conservation of natural areas (habitats, geo parks, protected areas, etc.). Also projects focussing on preserving and enhancing cultural and natural heritage and landscape, as well as protecting the marine environment.

    Projects on waste management (innovative services and strategies), ecological waste treatment, treatment techniques/systems; waste disposal and recycling (improvement of recycling, innovative recycling technologies, recovery of organic waste, repair & re-use centres and networks); also prevention of pollution and pollution control (ecological and circular economy, marine littering, etc.).

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    Community integration and common identity projects that build identity, create a more cohesive society, promote positive relations through an increased provision of shared spaces and services.

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    All projects where ICT has a significant role, including tailor-made ICT solutions in different fields, as well as digital innovation hubs, open data, Internet of Things; ICT access and connecting (remote) areas with digital infrastructure and services; services and applications for citizens (e-health, e-government, e-learning, e-inclusion, etc.); services and applications for companies (e-commerce, networking, digital transformation, etc.).

    This is about the mitigation and management of risks and disasters, and the anticipation and response capacity towards the actors regarding specific risks and management of natural disasters, for example, prevention of flood and drought hazards, forest fire, strong weather conditions, etc.. It is also about risk assessment and safety.

    Education and training projects on expanding educational opportunities, reducing barriers in the field of education, improving higher education and lifelong learning, training and labour mobility, educational networks, higher vocational education, common learning programmes.

    Topics on energy management, energy-saving methods, evaluating energy efficiency measurements, energy rehabilitation/efficiency in buildings / public infrastructure, promotion of energy efficiency, cooperation among experienced energy efficiency firms, institutions and local administrations, co-generation.

    Projects focussing on wind, solar, biomass, hydroelectric, geothermal and other renewable energy, increasing the production of sustainable renewable energy and improving research capacities in biomass. Also projects focussing on storage and management of renewable energy, new technologies, sustainable regional bioenergy policies and financial Instruments for investments on renewable energy.

    Social projects concerning people with disabilities and excluded groups; enhancement of the capacity of children, young people, women and elderly; creation of infrastructure to improve access for disabled people, integration of socially vulnerable people; innovate in the care of victims of gender violence, social inclusion of women, etc.

    This deals with the development of health and social services and improved accessibility and efficiency for different groups (elderly, children, etc.). It is also about new healthcare models and medical diagnosis and treatments (dementia, cancer, diabetes, etc.), hospitals, care management, and rare diseases, as well as improving wellbeing and promoting sports.

    Projects about (organised) crime, efficient and secure borders, such as enhancing the effectiveness of the police in the prevention of drug crimes, the development of safety services, or tackling security and organised crime issues.

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    • regional planning and development, such as the implementation of regional development policies/instruments and programmes, sustainable land use management plans, integrated regional action plans, spatial planning, and marine protected area management.
    • rural and peripheral development, referring to remote, sparsely populated areas, rural community development, and rural economics, in particular access to remote areas and policies for rural areas.
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Deadline expired

The deadline for this call has expired.

Call key data

Crowding in private finance

Funding Program

LIFE - sub-programme “Clean Energy Transition”

Call number

LIFE-2023-CET-PRIVAFIN

deadlines

Opening
11.05.2023

Deadline
16.11.2023 17:00

Funding rate

95%

Call budget

€ 6,500,000.00

Estimated EU contribution per project

€ 1,500,000.00

Link to the call

Link to the submission

Call content

short description

The topic aims to increase the amount of private finance allocated to energy efficiency and small-scale renewable energy sources by establishing innovative financing schemes for investments in sustainable energy and/or engaging with financial institutions to develop financial products and adapt their investment practices.

Call objectives

Significant investments in energy efficiency and small-scale renewables need to be mobilised to achieve the ambition set by the European Green Deal and the objective to reduce EU dependence on fossil fuels imports set out in the REPowerEU Plan. The only way to deliver the necessary level of investments is to progressively maximise the mobilisation of private capital, using public funds as a catalyst and an enabling regulatory framework. This has been at the heart of the works of the Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group (EEFIG) and will remain a central objective of the upcoming High-Level European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition. In addition, the Energy Efficiency Directive as proposed for revision provides that Member States facilitate the implementation of innovative financing schemes for energy efficiency and promote energy efficiency financial products. Moreover, National Energy and Climate Plans provide a solid framework for Member States to evaluate and report on investment needs and gaps to achieve their 2030 national energy and climate targets, including regarding the mobilisation of private investments.

While significant public sector expenditure is allocated to leverage private finance for energy efficiency and small-scale renewables (e.g. through the InvestEU facility), most private investors still view this type of investments as risky, complex and/or insufficiently profitable. This is due to the limited availability of investment opportunities which comply with the requirements of financial institutions in terms of size, scale, standardisation and transaction costs. There is a need to set up and roll-out private financing schemes which can be expanded and/or replicated at scale, and contribute to the national strategies to achieve the 2030 energy efficiency targets and the building renovation policy objectives. These schemes have to be adapted to the specificities of energy efficiency investment profiles, as well as those of small-scale renewables, in buildings, SMEs, district heating and other relevant sectors.

In parallel, there is a need to engage with financial institutions in order to change their approach to energy efficiency. Work is needed at the strategic level, in particular in relation to the EU’s sustainable finance policy and how energy efficiency can impact the sustainability and risk profiles of portfolios. At the operational level, there is a need to build capacity across the whole private finance value chain, from retail banking to capital markets, in order to adapt financial products and develop the market.

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Expected effects and impacts

Proposals should present the concrete results which will be delivered by the activities, and demonstrate how these results will contribute to the topic-specific impacts. This demonstration should include a detailed analysis of the starting point and a set of well-substantiated assumptions, and establish clear causality links between the results and the expected impacts.

Proposals submitted under scope A should demonstrate how they will contribute to deliver adequately tailored innovative financing schemes that are operational and ready to finance investments, and the impact that this will have on investments in energy efficiency and small-scale renewables.

Proposals submitted under scope B should demonstrate how their proposed results will contribute to, depending on the focus of the activities: enhanced capacity and appetite of private financial institutions to invest in energy efficiency and small-scale renewable energy sources; adoption of new approaches, tools, labels and certification schemes; enhanced access to data related to financial and energy performance; evolutions in the regulatory and supervisory frameworks; easier identification of the alignment of sustainable energy investments to the criteria of the EU taxonomy of sustainable activities.

Proposals under both scopes 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:

For scope A:

  • Number of investors and project developers using the financing scheme.
  • Number of investment projects processed/covered by the financing scheme.
  • Volume of investments processed/covered by the financing scheme.
  • Number of households and businesses benefitting from the financing scheme.
  • Investments in sustainable energy (energy efficiency and renewables) triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro).
  • Investments in building energy renovation triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro).
  • Average % of energy savings targeted by investment projects.

For scope B:

  • Number of financial institutions using the developed financial products/tools.
  • Number of investment projects processed/covered by the developed financial products/tools.
  • Volume of investments covered by the developed financial products/tools.
  • Number of households and businesses benefitting from the financial products.
  • Number of private finance stakeholders, and related investment portfolios, integrating the results of the project in their work.
  • Number of private finance stakeholders benefitting from enhanced capacity.
  • Number of policy makers, regulatory bodies and supervisory authorities benefitting from support on sustainable energy policies.
  • Investments in sustainable energy (energy efficiency and renewables) triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro).
  • Investments in building energy renovation triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro).

Proposals should also quantify their impacts related to the following common indicators for the LIFE Clean Energy Transition subprogramme:

  • Investments in sustainable energy (energy efficiency and renewables) triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro) – where not covered as topic specific indicator.
  • Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year).
  • Renewable energy generation triggered by the project (in GWh/year).
  • Reduction of greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year).

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Expected results

Proposals should clearly focus on tailored, market-oriented solutions to crowd in private finance at scale for sustainable energy investments, understood as investments in energy efficiency and/or small-scale renewable energy sources and storage.

Proposals are expected to focus on one of the two scopes below. The scope addressed should be specified in the introduction of the proposal.

Scope A: Innovative financing schemes

Proposals should set-up innovative financing schemes leveraging private finance for sustainable energy investments, with a dedicated and clear focus on energy efficiency, in at least 1 eligible country with a clear ambition and effort towards expansion in additional eligible countries. The financing scheme should be operational by the end of the project, whereas the related investments may be implemented after project completion.

The financing schemes can involve, for example but not limited to:

  • Equity, debt, mezzanine financing, potentially combined with non-reimbursable grants (“blending”).
  • Guarantees, risk-sharing, insurances or other de-risking instruments.
  • Energy services such as energy performance contracting and variants thereof, if used to finance the investments.
  • On-bill, on-tax and building-based financing, where the debt is attached to the energy meter or the building rather than the household or company.
  • Schemes complementing, with a dedicated financing component, already existing local and regional technical assistance facilities, in particular integrated home renovation services.
  • Schemes targeting the secondary market, including refinancing mechanisms, specialised securitisation vehicles and green bond schemes.
  • Local investment structures, including citizen financing (e.g. crowdfunding) for energy efficiency.
  • Market-based instruments relevant for sustainable energy (e.g. carbon finance instruments, energy efficiency obligations, etc.).
  • Brokering, aggregation or clearing houses, which facilitate matching of demand and supply of sustainable energy finance.

Proposals should take into account all the following elements:

  • Establish an innovative, operational financing scheme for energy efficiency and/or integrated renewables in at least 1 eligible country. Proposals can build on and/or upscale innovative financing schemes successfully tested previously.
  • Address the provision of finance as well as the structuring of demand, in particular at regional and national level.
  • Define the target region(s) and sector(s) and justify how the proposed scheme is innovative and complements available funding schemes.
  • Clearly demonstrate the business case and financial viability of the proposed scheme (including e.g. market analysis, investment sizes targeted, transaction and management costs, expected energy/cost savings and other returns, etc.).
  • Plan replication and/or rollout of the scheme envisaged beyond the region(s) targeted for the establishment, including the analysis of legal and market conditions for replication.

Scope B: Mainstreaming sustainable energy finance

Proposals should address one or several of the following areas of work:

  • Development, evolution, labelling and certification of financial products, including insurance, as well as provision of information and potential advice to the borrower or investor in order to ensure uptake of green products, with a focus on the retail side and/or capital markets.
  • Evolution of risk and sustainability assessment of private investors by integrating the specificities of energy efficiency and integrated small-scale renewables, including multiple benefits of energy efficiency. The focus can be at project level (e.g. creditworthiness analysis, quality standards, benchmarking data) or at portfolio level (e.g. internal ratings-based approaches, climate stress-testing, analysis of investment strategies, etc.).
  • Benchmarking, tagging, monitoring and disclosure of data on energy efficiency investments and financial performance thereof, including standards to report on the energy performance of investment portfolios (in particular mortgages, consumer loans, corporate loans).
  • Targeted support to policy makers, regulatory bodies and supervisory authorities on sustainable energy related activities, for example on risk ratings and stress testing related to energy performance of assets.
  • Accelerating implementation of EU sustainable finance principles by private investors and/or companies for sustainable energy investments, including for investments not yet covered by the EU taxonomy.
  • Capacity building at all levels of the private finance value chain, in the form of exchanges of best practices, development of training programmes and/or evolution and/or rollout of existing training programmes.

The proposed actions should have a strong component of engagement with the relevant stakeholders in the private finance value chain, including institutional investors, but also retail banking branches, brokers, fund managers, investment advisers, insurers, etc., in order to ensure adoption of the results by market players. Proposals should demonstrate support of the targeted stakeholder groups and how they will be involved throughout the project.

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Eligibility Criteria

Regions / countries for funding

EU Member States, Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT)
Moldova (Moldova), Iceland (Ísland), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Ukraine (Україна)

eligible entities

Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)

Mandatory partnership

Yes

Project Partnership

Proposals must be submitted by:

  • minimum 3 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries. 

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 (associated countries) or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature (list of participating countries)
  • the coordinator must be established in an eligible country

Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of self-employed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person).

International organisations are eligible. The rules on eligible countries do not apply to them.

EU bodies — EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.


Financial support to third parties is not allowed. 

Additional information

Topics

Air Quality, Biodiversity & Environment, Climate & Climate Change, Water quality & management, 
Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy

Relevance for EU Macro-Region

EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region

UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)

Additional Information

Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System (accessible via the Topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section. Paper submissions are NOT possible.

Proposals must be complete and contain all the requested information and all required annexes and supporting documents: 

  • Application Form Part A — contains administrative information about the participants (future coordinator, beneficiaries and affiliated entities) and the summarised budget for the project (to be filled in directly online)
  • Application Form Part B — contains the technical description of the project (to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded) 
  • Part C (to be filled in directly online) containing additional project data
  • Mandatory annexes and supporting documents (to be uploaded):
    • detailed budget table (mandatory excel template available in the Submission System)
    • participant information including previous projects, if any (mandatory template available in the Submission System)
    • Optional annexes:
      • letters of support

Proposals are limited to maximum 65 pages (Part B). 

Contact

European Climate Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) - LIFE
Website

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