LIFE-2026-PLP-NAT-ENV – Projects on Legislative and Policy Priorities in the fields of Nature & Biodiversity and Circular Economy & Quality of Life

Identifikátor témy: LIFE-2026-PLP-NAT-ENV Výzva: LIFE-2026-PLP – LIFE Projects for addressing ad hoc Legislative and Policy priorities (PLP) Program: Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE) Časť programu: Preparatory Environment, Preparatory Nature Typ akcie: LIFE-PJG LIFE Project Grants Typ zmluvy (MGA): LIFE Action Grant Budget-Based Stav: Closed Otvorenie: 21. 4. 2026 Termín(y) podania: 22. 9. 2026 Rozpočet: 13 500 000 €

Expected Impact:

Applicants are expected to define, qualify and quantify the expected impacts of their proposal in light of what is described in the call document (see Call document section 2). This will be assessed as described in the Award criterion ‘Impact’ (see Call document section 9).

Objective:

Based on article 11 of the LIFE Regulation 2021/783, the LIFE Multi Annual Work Programme 2025-2027, includes the possibility to finance each year a limited number of projects designed to support specific needs for the development and implementation of Union environment policy and legislation. Once a year, in consultation with Member States, the Commission makes an inventory of the specific needs regarding the development and implementation of Union environmental or climate policy and legislation that require to be addressed during the following years and identifies among them the ones that could be addressed by specific projects.

Scope:

Point 4.1.4 of the LIFE 2025-2027 Multi Annual Work Programme indicates that under “Other Actions”, additional projects responding to the Union legislative and policy priorities could be determined on annual basis, following a consultation with Member States.

The list of specific priorities to be addressed in this call is provided below. The Section 2 of the Call document further spells out for each priority the specific needs to be addressed, the activities that can be funded, the expected impacts and any other requirement.

The lists of LIFE-2026-PLP-NAT-ENV specific priorities are:

- Digitising Environmental Impact Assessments and permitting procedures - Preserving primary and old-growth forest in critical regions of Europe through mapping and awareness raising - Development and implementation of analytical methodology to distinguish between virgin and recycled polymers at custom controls - Support for reducing discharges into marine waters from exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers) installed onboard ships - Capacity-building of authorities in Montenegro and Moldova

Conditions

1. Admissibility conditions: Proposal page limit and layout

described in section 5 of the call document.

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.

2. Eligible countries

described in section 6 of the call document.

3. Other eligibility conditions

described in section 6 of the call document.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion

described in section 7 of the call document.

5a. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes

described section 8 of the call document and the Online Manual.

5b. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds

described in section 9 of the call document.

5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement

described in section 4 of the call document.

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants

described in section 10 of the call document.

Call document and annexes:

Call document

Application form templates

Standard application form (LIFE TA CAP, TA-R, PLP and BEST) — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System

Mandatory annexes to the application form

Detailed budget table (LIFE)

Participant information (LIFE)

Optional annexes

Letters of support (no specific template)

Other (not mandatory) annexes such as Maps (LIFE) and Description of sites (LIFE)

Model Grant Agreements (MGA)

LIFE MGA

Additional documents:

LIFE Multiannual Work Programme 2025-2027

LIFE Regulation 2021/783

EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509

Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment

EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement

Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual

Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions

Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

Aktuality k téme: - 2026-09-23: Call LIFE-2026-PLP has closed on 22 September 2026. 13 proposals have been submitted. The breakdown per topic is: - LIFE-2026-PLP-NAT-ENV: 9 proposals - LIFE-2026-PLP-ENER-GOV: 2 proposals - LIFE-2026-PLP-ENER-COMPLIANCE: 2 proposals Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in February 2027. - 2026-05-27: For topic 1 - LIFE-2026-PLP-NAT-ENV: North Macedonia is no longer included under the specific priority 5 on Capacity-building of authorities. Moldova is now included under that same specific priority. For specific priority 5, the contracting authority expects to award one grant covering Montenegro and one grant covering Moldova. - 2026-04-21: The submission session is now available for: LIFE-2026-PLP-NAT-ENV, LIFE-2026-PLP-ENER-COMPLIANCE, LIFE-2026-PLP-ENER-GOV