Division (a) Eligibility criteria

Both a concept note and full proposal for a project within the meaning of Article 18(a), (b), (c), or (h) of the LIFE Regulation will not be retained for an evaluation of its merit, if the project proposal does not demonstrate that the project:

• contributes to one or several of the general objectives set out in Article 3 of the LIFE Regulation and of the applicable specific objectives in Articles 10, 11, 12 and 14, 15 and 16 of the LIFE Regulation,

• falls within the scope of the priority area of the LIFE sub-programme as set out in Articles 9 and 13 of the LIFE Regulation under which the project proposal was submitted, and

• corresponds to one of the following project types as defined in Article 2 (a), (b), (c) and (h) of the LIFE Regulation:

  • ‘Pilot projects’ are 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.

  • ‘Demonstration projects’ are projects that, put into practice, test, evaluate and disseminate actions, methodologies or approaches that are new or unknown in the specific context of the project, such as the geographical, ecological, socioeconomic context, and that could be applied elsewhere in similar circumstances.

  • ‘Best practice projects’ are projects that apply appropriate, cost-effective and state-of-the-art techniques, methods and approaches taking into account the specific context of the project.

  • ‘Information, awareness and dissemination projects’ are projects aimed at supporting communication, dissemination of information and awareness raising in the fields of the sub-programme for Environment or Climate Action.

  • Pilot and demonstration projects under the priority area Environment and Resource Efficiency , and pilot, demonstration and best practice projects under the priority areas Climate Change Mitigation and Climate Change Adaptation , must contain actions that lead to substantial and measurable direct effects on the environmental and/or climate action issue(s) targeted.

  • Pilot, demonstration and best practice projects under the priority area Nature and Biodiversity , must dedicate at least 25 % of the eligible budget to concrete conservation actions (limited exceptions will be possible in view of the specific policy needs and will be explicitly identified in the application guidelines). Concrete conservation actions are those that have substantial and measurable direct effects on the environmental and climate issue(s) targeted, in this case leading to the improvement or the slowing/halting/reversion of the decline of the conservation status or ecological condition of the species, habitats, ecosystems or ecosystem services targeted (for more details refer to the application guidelines).

  • Pilot, demonstration, best practice or information, awareness and dissemination projects under the priority areas Environmental or Climate Action Governance and Information must contain actions that lead to substantial and measurable direct or indirect effects on the environmental and/or climate action issue(s) targeted by causing substantial and measurable direct effects on the environmental and/or climate related governance, information, and/or awareness and dissemination issue(s) targeted.

The targeted environmental, climate action and/or related governance and information effects should already be measurable and measured or modelled on the basis of measurements during the project period.

As a measure to avoid overlap with other EU programmes^f1, projects focused on research ^f2 or dedicated to the construction of large infrastructure do not fall within the scope of the LIFE programme and are therefore not eligible.

LIFE projects shall not serve to fund compensation measures deriving from obligations under national or EU law.