Funding programme

LIFE is the EU’s funding programme dedicated to the environment and climate action.

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Call overview

This call aims to contribute to the protection of nature and biodiversity.

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Objective

To contribute to the protection of nature and biodiversity by:

• Supporting nature and biodiversity policy and legislation compliance assurance, and/or
• Promoting effective public participation and access to justice in nature and biodiversity policy and legislation-related matters.

Proposals under this topic must support the implementation of the governance aspects (i.e. compliance assurance, public participation, access to justice) of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, with a focus on EU Nature and Biodiversity legislation by:

• promoting effective public participation and access to justice in nature and biodiversity policy and legislation-related matters amongst the public, NGOs, lawyers, the judiciary, public administrations; and/or
• establishing new or, where in place, enhancing existing cross-border, national or regional networks of compliance assurance practitioners or experts; and/or
• establishing or, where in place, improving professional qualifications and training to improve public participation, access to justice and compliance with binding EU legal instruments on nature and biodiversity, through promoting, checking and enforcing compliance; and/or
• developing and implementing strategies and policies and/or developing and using innovative tools and actions to promote, monitor and enforce compliance with binding EU instruments on nature and biodiversity, including use of administrative law, criminal law and environmental liability; and/or
• improving relevant information systems operated by public authorities; and/or
• engaging with citizens and others to promote and monitor compliance, and ensure application of environmental liability in relation to EU nature and biodiversity legislation.

Scope

The present Call topic targets Standard Action Projects (SAP) aimed at achieving the objectives of the LIFE Nature and Biodiversity sub-programme by improving governance at all levels, as defined in sections 1 and 2 of the Call document.

This call topic focuses exclusively on governance projects; other projects in line with the objectives of the LIFE Nature and Biodiversity sub-programme but defined in the Call topic LIFE-2024-SAP-NAT-NATURE are excluded.

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Activities that can be funded

Promoting good practices, supporting implementation, organising trainings, educational, academic programmes, etc. to ensure effective compliance assurance, public participation and access to justice in nature and biodiversity policy and legislation-related matters amongst the public (including youth and future professionals), NGOs, lawyers, the judiciary, public administrations or other stakeholders with a view to improving knowledge, understanding and application of effective means of public participation and/or access to justice, with a particular focus on protecting nature and biodiversity via the nature, biodiversity, water and environmental liability instruments.

Further details in the call document.

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Eligibility

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 (list of participating countries)

- the coordinator must be established in an eligible country.

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Duration

Indicative project duration: between 36 and 84 months.

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Budget

The total indicative budget is EUR 3 500 000

Maximum 60% funding rate.