Call: Strategic Integrated Projects - Environment

The specific objectives of the sub-programme “Circular Economy and Quality of Life” are:

• to develop, demonstrate and promote innovative techniques, methods and approaches for reaching the objectives of Union legislation and policy on environment, and to contribute to the knowledge base and, where relevant, to the application of best practices;
• to support the development, implementation, monitoring and enforcement of relevant Union legislation and policy on environment, including by improving governance at all levels, in particular through enhancing capacities of public and private actors and the involvement of civil society;
• to catalyse the large-scale deployment of successful technical and policy-related solutions for implementing relevant Union legislation and policy on environment, by replicating results, integrating related objectives into other policies and into public and private sector practices, mobilising investment and improving access to finance.

This sub-programme aims at facilitating the transition toward a sustainable, circular, energy-efficient and climate-resilient economy, a toxic-free environment and at protecting, restoring and improving the quality of the environment. It will contribute to the relevant European Union priorities by:

• reducing resource consumption and facilitating the transition toward a sustainable, circular, toxic-free, energy-efficient and climate-resilient environment;
• developing circular systems, in line with the new Circular Economy Action Plan and reflecting its focus on sustainable products, material and energy intensive sectors and circular business models for value retention. Specific consideration will be given to projects from EU outermost regions and islands.
• bringing down waste generation in line with the Waste Framework Directive and the reduction of hazardous waste in view of the EU’s commitment under the Basel Convention;
• improving waste management with respect to the collection and storage of waste, recovery options and end-of-life disposal, including in islands, remote coastal or terrestrial areas, and Outermost Regions where waste management faces specific challenges;
• reducing emissions of pollutants to air and seas, and ensuring clean air and seas for EU citizens in line with the EU acquis and the objectives of the zero pollution action plan;
• achieving and maintaining a good status of the Union’s water bodies;
• ensuring clean surface water and ground-water, in sufficient quantities for human and other species, including by increasing efficiency of water use;
• reducing production, use and emissions of hazardous chemicals as well as reducing the exposure of humans and the environment to those chemicals;
• promoting the development, commercialisation and uptake of safe and sustainable-by-design substances, materials and products;
• diminishing exposure to harmful noise levels;
• protecting the quality of EU soil, preventing soil degradation and increasing resilience of soils to climate threats and combat desertification through sustainable practices of soil and land management, remediating from soil pollution and enhancing the capacity to improve water quality through reduced nitrate leakage and to reduce emissions through carbon storage and preventing and mitigating soil sealing.

The available budget will be used to finance mainly SAPs, Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs) and OAs focusing on the following:

• Circular economy, including recovery of resources from waste, to accelerate the transition towards a circular, climate-neutral sustainable and toxic-free environment, where:
  • the value of products, materials and resources is maximised and maintained in the economy for as long as possible;
  • the manufacture and use of products is sustainable and;
  • the generation of waste and the presence of harmful substances is minimised.

• Environment and health: sustainable management based on long term protection of natural resources and raw materials, environmental friendly production of goods and provision of services with a view to eliminating, preventing or minimising the adverse effects and negative impacts on the health and well-being of Union citizens, and improving the quality of their lives, as well as on the environment and its marine andterrestrial ecosystems, including:
  • Water and seas. The protection and improvement of groundwater and surface water quality and the prevention and elimination of water and marine pollutants in view of achieving and maintaining a good chemical and ecological status of all the Union’s water bodies, including wetlands, the marine environment, and the active safeguard of water quantity as well as the reduction of all the related pressures;
  • Air & Noise. The protection of air and the improvement of air quality through theprevention and/or reduction of air pollutants and noise, especially in the urbanenvironment;
  • Soil. The restoration, remediation, protection and improvement of soil health, within natural or managed ecosystem boundaries, to provide ecosystem services, in particular to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and support human health and habitats and to prevent soil loss;
  • Chemicals management. A more sustainable use of chemicals substances and mixtures, on their own and in articles and final products (including e.g. pesticides, fertilisers, antimicrobials and nanomaterials), better information on chemical content of final products, accidents prevention and related informed purchase, including fostering the interlink of chemicals risk management, circularity of materials and climate change.
• Environment governance projects to incentive behavioural change, which will support the implementation of the European Green Deal, capacity building at all levels, including for civil society, mainstreaming environmental objectives, circular and resource efficiency actions in relevant sectors, improvement of the knowledge base on the environment, including the greening of investments, environment monitoring, accounting and reporting and contributing to policy monitoring, assessment and ex-post evaluation.
• The New European Bauhaus (NEB) overarching initiative. This will be an environmental, economic and cultural project to combine design, sustainability, accessibility and affordability in order to help deliver the European Green Deal. This initiative will consider as well nature and biodiversity elements.

Objectives:

Support the full implementation of the following plans and strategies:

• Circular Economy: National or Regional Circular Economy Action Plans, Strategies, Roadmaps or similar, which are officially approved, and which include specific and measurable actions, or targets, with a clear timeline and are in line with or complementing the objectives of the EU Circular Economy Action Plan.
• Waste: National and regional Waste Management Plans pursuant to Article 28 of the Waste Framework Directive and/or Waste Prevention Programmes as requested by article 29 of the Waste Framework Directive.
• Water: River basin management plans pursuant to Annex VII to the Water Framework Directive, Flood Risk Management Plans pursuant to the Floods Directive or Marine Strategies pursuant to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
• Air: Air quality plans pursuant to the Ambient Air Quality Directive or National Air Pollution Control Programmes pursuant to the National Emission Ceilings Directive.

Scope:

SIPs should aim at the full implementation of the strategies and plans listed in "Objective". This might not mean that the SIP will cover all actions foreseen in the strategy/plan or that the strategy/plan will be fully implemented during the lifetime of the SIP. However, the SIP shall include strategic actions to catalyse a process and mobilise supplementary commitments and funding that will lead, in due time, to the full implementation of the plan or strategy.

SIPs shall promote the coordination with and mobilisation of other relevant Union, national or private funding sources for the implementation of the complementary measures or actions outside of the SIP in the framework of the targeted plan or strategy, giving preference to EU funding. Within the SIP itself, however, co-funding may not come from other EU funding sources.

SIPs shall actively involve the main stakeholders necessary for the implementation of the targeted plan or strategy. They should be involved in both the design and implementation of the given project. This involvement is expected to be achieved by including them - where possible and reasonable - as associated beneficiaries of the SIP, or through their active participation in the implementation of the SIP itself and/or of the complementary actions.

SIPs should facilitate and result in the building up of strategic capacities among the competent authorities and stakeholders to ensure a long-term sustainability of project results and actions, and to ensure that they will be able to function as co-deliverers of the targeted plan or strategy during or after the end of the SIP.

The SIP complexity requires an adaptive approach in the design of the implementing mechanism. For this reason, SIPs will be implemented based on a revolving programming mechanism structured in phases (i.e. Phase 1, Phase 2, etc.). Each phase should normally last at least 3 years, to reduce administrative burden, although duration might be shorter if properly justified.

Expected impact:

• By the end of the project: at least substantial contribution to the implementation of the targeted plan/strategy/action plan, and mechanisms established to ensure full implementation of the plan/strategy/action plan.
• After the project (3-5 years after): catalysing full implementation of the targeted plan(s)/strategy(ies)/action plan(s).

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 (participating countries) or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature
• the coordinator must be established in an eligible country

Entities from other countries are exceptionally eligible, if the granting authority considers their participation essential for the implementation of the action (see work programme).

Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of self-employed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person).

International organisations are eligible. The rules on eligible countries do not apply to them.

Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees for the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons34.

EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.

Entities composed of members may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’. Please note that if the action will be implemented by the members, they should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible).

Beneficiaries from countries with ongoing negotiations may participate in the call and can sign grants if the negotiations are concluded before grant signature (with retroactive effect, if provided in the agreement).

Special rules apply for certain entities (e.g. entities subject to EU restrictive measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/0537). Such entities are not eligible to participate in any capacity, including as beneficiaries, affiliated entities, associated partners, subcontractors or recipients of financial support to third parties (if any).

Proposals must be submitted by:

for all topics of this Call:

• minimum 2 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities)
• the national authority responsible for the plan/strategy/action plan should be in principle participating in the consortium as coordinator. In well justified cases it may participate not as coordinator, but it should in any case be part of the consortium

Proposal page limits and layout:

Proposals must be complete and contain all the requested information and all required annexes and supporting documents:

• Application Form Part A — contains administrative information about the participants (future coordinator, beneficiaries and affiliated entities) and the summarised budget for the project (to be filled in directly online)
• Application Form Part B — contains the technical description of the project (to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded)
• Part C (to be filled in directly online) containing additional project data
• mandatory annexes and supporting documents (to be uploaded):
  • for stage 1:
    • targeted plan/strategy/action plan
    • implementation overview for the plan/strategy/action plan
    • complementary funding plan
  • for stage 2:
    • detailed budget table (mandatory excel template available in the Submission System)
    • participant information
    • targeted plan/strategy/action plan
    • implementation overview for the plan/strategy/action plan
    • complementary funding plan
    • complementary funding declarations (at least one)

Page limit - Part B: 45 pages at stage 1 and 200 pages at stage 2

Topic budget: EUR 52,800,000.00

Indicative range of project budgets: EUR 10.00 - 30.00 Mio

Estimated number of projects to be funded: 3 - 6 projects

Funding rate: maximum 60%