Brussels time
LIFE is the EU’s funding programme dedicated to the environment and climate action.
This call aims to support the upskilling of building professionals across Europe.
Launched in 2011, the BUILD UP Skills initiative[1] is supporting the upskilling of building professionals across Europe, to deliver building renovations offering high energy performance as well as new nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (nZEBs). This effort needs to be sustained through the rollout of ambitious training and qualification interventions aligned with the EU Green Deal, the EU’s 2030 climate objectives as well as the EU’s long-term strategy of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
The first objective of the topic (Scope A) is to increase the number of skilled building professionals at all levels of the building design, operation and maintenance value chain. The focus is on the skills needed to enable the Clean Energy Transition, in particular the EU Renovation Wave, the EU Solar Energy Strategy[2], the Communication on Digitalising the Energy System – EU action plan[3], as well as the implementation of the provisions on skills as part of revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), and Renewable Energy Directive (RED).[4]
The second objective of the topic (Scope B) is to create a thriving community of practitioners actively involved in upskilling activities for building professionals, which will support the large-scale roll-out of successful approaches across Europe.
The topic supports and goes beyond the Large-Scale Partnership for the construction ecosystem under the Pact for Skills, which plans to upskill and reskill overall at least 25% of the workforce of the construction industry in the next 5 years, to reach the target of 3 million workers[5], as well as the Renewable Energy skills Large-Scale partnership.[6] In addition, the topic aims to leverage synergies with the initiatives on digital skills for the energy transition addressed in the framework of the Communication on Digitalising the Energy System.
Read more details in the call document.
Proposals should address only one of the two scopes below. The scope addressed should be clearly specified in the proposal's introduction.
Scope A - Upskilling and reskilling interventions enabling a decarbonised building stock and energy system integration
Proposals under Scope A should develop, test, validate and prepare the deployment of new and/or the upgrade of existing training and qualification schemes for all types of professionals involved in the building value chain ('blue collars' and/or 'white collars' professionals), as well as for professionals active in other sectors than construction and buildings renovation. To ensure a successful deployment phase, the proposed training and qualification schemes should be tailored to the specificities of the national markets targeted; proposals should demonstrate a clear plan for deployment after project completion.
Scope B - BUILD UP Skills community of practice
The BUILD UP Skills initiative has funded more than 90 projects involving 32 countries since its inception. These projects have developed and tested a whole range of solutions and tools for skills intelligence, skills development and skills uptake in the building value chain.
Proposals under Scope B are expected to develop an EU community of practitioners with proven experience in the development and promotion of sustainable energy skills for building professionals in EU Member States and LIFE associated countries.
Read more details in the call document.
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.
Read more details in the call document.
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.:
- the coordinator must be established in an eligible country.
Proposals under Scope A may be submitted by a single applicant from a single eligible country.
Proposals submitted by a single applicant or proposals covering a single eligible country are not considered appropriate under scope B. The community of practice to be established must be transnational and actively involve a variety of stakeholders from various eligible countries. Therefore, the Commission considers relevant that consortia gather a minimum of 3 applicants from 3 different eligible countries.
The Commission considers that proposals submitted under Scope A requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 1 to EUR 1.5 million would allow the specific objectives to be addressed appropriately.
The Commission considers that proposals submitted under Scope B requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 2 million would allow the specific objectives to be addressed appropriately.
Brussels time
