LIFE

LIFE is the European Union’s programme for environmental and climate action. Its official title is the Programme for the Environment and Climate Action. It runs in the 2021 to 2027 funding period. The European Commission is responsible; it is implemented by the executive agency CINEA. You receive a grant, not a loan and not a tax relief.

Unlike many funding programmes, LIFE does not finance only individual projects. Alongside project grants there are operating grants for non-profit organisations and framework partnerships. The funding is awarded through calls for proposals. Each call has its own theme, its own budget and its own deadline.

What stands out is the financing of transition. LIFE helps carry projects for the environment, climate and the energy transition with direct grants. High transformation costs therefore do not rest with your company alone. For the 2026 call, €601.5 million is available.

Legal entities are eligible to apply. These include companies, organisations and consortia, that is, groupings of several partners. Individual calls are expressly aimed at non-profit organisations and at framework partners.

Your organisation must be based in a member state of the European Union. For some of the calls, applicants from associated countries also qualify. Private individuals are not eligible to apply.

It is also decisive that your project matches the theme of an open call. Which calls are open and which themes they cover can be seen on the European Union’s Funding & Tenders Portal. There you will find the conditions and the deadline for each call. Check this first, because the theme and the deadline are set by the call, not by your timetable.

Funding goes to projects from the LIFE themes: environment, nature conservation, climate action and the energy transition, referred to in the documents as clean energy transition. Every call describes its theme precisely, and your project has to fit that framework. Alongside the project calls, LIFE uses operating grants to support the ongoing work of non-profit organisations.

The direct costs of your project are reimbursed. These include personnel costs and material costs for delivery as well as the preparation, the coordination and the implementation of the project. External expertise and subcontracting are common in project calls and are eligible in so far as the call permits them.

Before you draw up your budget, check which costs your call excludes. In individual calls, financial support to third parties is expressly not permitted.

You receive a grant that you do not repay. It is paid out as reimbursement of your eligible project costs.

The funding rate is set out in the documents of the individual call. In one climate action call under the 2026 round it is 60% of the eligible costs.

The size of your funding follows from three figures: your eligible costs, the rate of your call and the budget of the theme. These budgets vary in size. For the energy transition, €85.5 million is available under the 2026 round, and €60.0 million for a single climate action call.