Call: Pilot Projects - Nature and Biodiversity

The LIFE programme is the EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action. The general objective of LIFE is to contribute to the implementation, updating and development of EU environmental and climate policy and legislation by co-financing projects with European added value.

The LIFE Programme shall in particular have the following general objectives:

• to contribute to the shift towards a resource-efficient, lowcarbon and climate- resilient economy, to the protection and improvement of the quality of the environment and to halting and reversing biodiversity loss, including the support of the Natura 2000 network and tackling the degradation of ecosystems;
• to improve the development, implementation and enforcement of Union environmental and climate policy and legislation, and to act as a catalyst for, and promote, the integration and mainstreaming of environmental and climate objectives into other Union policies and public and private sector practice, including by increasing the public and private sector's capacity;
• to support better environmental and climate governance at all levels, including better involvement of civil society, NGOs and local actors;
• to support the implementation of the 7th Environment Action Programme.

• contributing to the development and implementation of EU policy and legislation in the area of nature and biodiversity, in the Union Biodiversity Strategy to 20209, and the Birds and Habitats Directives10;
• supporting the further development, implementation and management of the Natura 2000 network; and
• improving the knowledge base for the development, implementation, assessment, monitoring and evaluation of EU nature and biodiversity policy and legislation, and for assessing and monitoring factors, pressures and responses that impact on nature and biodiversity.

"Pilot projects" means projects that apply a technique or method that has not been applied or tested before, or elsewhere, that offer potential environmental or climate advantages compared to current best practice and that can subsequently be applied on a larger scale to similar situations.
There are two distinct sectors of projects which are intended to complement each other: LIFE Nature projects and LIFE Biodiversity projects. A proposed project submitted under the priority area LIFE Nature & Biodiversity must either be a LIFE Nature or a LIFE Biodiversity project.

Proposals may be submitted by legal persons (entities) registered in the EU. Applicants may fall into three types of beneficiaries: (1) public bodies, (2) private commercial organisations and (3) private non-commercial organisations (including NGOs).

Partners are not mandatory. Transnational Projects have priority though.

Applications will be submitted in two stages:

• Stage 1: Concept note of 10 pages (Deadline: 16.07.2020)

Shortlisted applicants will be notified and invited to submit full proposals in February 2021.
Usually projects last for 2 to 5 years.

EU co-financing rate: max. 60% (in specific cases up do 75%)
There is no fixed minimum size for project budgets. While large ambitious projects (i.e. over 5 million € total costs) have been financed several times in the past, small projects (i.e. below 500 000 € total costs) have seldom succeeded due to the limited output and consequently the low added value.

For detailed information on LIFE national contact points, please follow this link.