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  1. An institution, body, office or agency established by or based on the Treaty on European Union and the Treaties establishing the European Communities.

    All education and training facilities for people of different age groups.

    An intergovernmental organization having legal personality under public international law or a specialized agency established by such an international organization. An international organization, the majority of whose members are Member States or Associated Countries and whose main objective is to promote scientific and technological cooperation in Europe, is an International Organization of European Interest.

    A person with legal rights and obligations. Unlike a legal entity, a natural person does not have a legal act (e.g. association, limited liability company, etc.).

    An NPO is an institution or organization which, by virtue of its legal form, is not profit-oriented or which is required by law not to distribute profits to its shareholders or individual members. An NGO is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that does not represent business interests. Pursues a common purpose for the benefit of society.

    A partnership, corporation, person, or agency that is for-profit and not operated by the government.

    Any government or other public administration, including public advisory bodies, at the national, regional or local level.

    A research institution is a legal entity established as a non-profit organization whose main objective is to conduct research or technological development. A college/university is a legal entity recognized by its national education system as a university or college or secondary school. It may be a public or private institution.

    A microenterprise, a small or medium-sized enterprise (business) as defined in EU Recommendation 2003/361. To qualify as an SME for EU funding, an enterprise must meet certain conditions, including (a) fewer than 250 employees and (b) an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million. These ceilings apply only to the figures for individual companies.

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  1. Governance, partnership: Projects aimed at increasing the application of multilevel and transnational or cross-border governance, designing and testing appropriate governance structures and mechanisms. Also cooperation between public institutions on any theme.

    Innovation capacity and awareness-raising: Actions that increase a person’s or organisation’s capacity for innovation (not innovation as such), and that establish the capacity to diffuse and apply innovation; projects that stimulate innovation in different areas and innovation capacities; strengthening and empowering of innovation networks.

    Institutional cooperation and cooperation networks: Projects working on the improvement of institutional cross-border co-operation and capacities, on renewing and simplifying administrative management through long term cooperation between institutions (e.g. Euregion), on establishing and sharing regional knowledge and intercultural understanding and cohesion. It also deals with cooperations between universities, health care facilities, schools and sports organisations, as well as with management and capacity building.

    Activities focussing on agricultural products, organic farming, horticulture, as well as forest management and wood products; furthermore the development of the food sector, food chains, organic food production, and seafood products and any topics related to animals and fishing.

    Agriculture and fisheries and forestry: Projects focussing on agricultural products (i.e. fruits, meat, olives, etc.), organic farming, horticulture, as well as forest management and wood products. Also the development of the agro-food sector, food chains, organic food production, and seafood products. Any topics related to animals (i.e. health, management) and fishing (i.e. sustainable fishery, aquaculture).

    Soil and air quality: Projects that deal with any topic against soil and air pollution, except water pollution, for example, reduction of soil and air contamination, pollution-management systems, but also prevention and eradication of soil erosion, new ways of improving air quality (also indoors) and soil/air knowledge in general.

    Climate change and biodiversity projects assisting mitigation and adaption to climate change and environmental impacts of climate change. Development of low carbon technologies and strategies, reduction of CO2 emissions from all sectors. Promotion of biodiversity, new instruments to enhance biodiversity and natural protection.

    Soil and air quality projects that deal with any topic against soil and air pollution, except water pollution, for example, reduction of soil and air contamination, pollution-management systems, but also prevention and eradication of soil erosion, new ways of improving air quality (also indoors) and soil/air knowledge in general.

    Water management projects about management and distribution of drinking water, integrated sustainable water management, monitoring systems for water supply and improving drinking water quality; also water treatment (wastewater), in particular, innovative technologies to improve wastewater, treatments in the purification of industrial and domestic wastewater and water reuse policies. Waterways, lakes and rivers: This deals with any topics on waterways, lakes and rivers, from improving water quality, protecting and developing of ecosystems or sustainable wetland management.

    Activities that protect, promote and enhance cultural and natural heritage, increase the attractiveness through preservation and valorisation of common cultural and natural heritage in a sustainable manner, and improve and develop cultural and natural heritage objects, services and products. Cultural heritage management, art and culture, (maritime) heritage routes, access to cultural and natural heritage. Also all topics on cultural services such as festivals, concerts, art workshops.

    Tourism projects dealing with the promotion of natural assets, and the protection and development of natural heritage, as well as increasing the touristic attractiveness through the better use of natural, cultural and historical heritage. Also projects about improved tourist services/products, development of ecotourism models, tourism development strategies.

    Sustainable management of natural resources projects focussing on the protection, promotion and valorization, and sustainable management and conservation of natural areas (habitats, geo parks, protected areas, etc.). Also projects focussing on preserving and enhancing cultural and natural heritage and landscape, as well as protecting the marine environment.

    Projects on waste management (innovative services and strategies), ecological waste treatment, treatment techniques/systems; waste disposal and recycling (improvement of recycling, innovative recycling technologies, recovery of organic waste, repair & re-use centres and networks); also prevention of pollution and pollution control (ecological and circular economy, marine littering, etc.).

    Labour market and employment: creating employment opportunities and/or optimising jobs, academic (un)employment and job mobility, workforce attraction and improvement of employment conditions for different groups.

    SME and entrepreneurship: strengthening SME capacities, boosting entrepreneurial activities in different sectors and for different groups, supporting social entrepreneurship, creating business support/advisory systems for start-ups/spin-offs/incubators, improving the competitiveness of SMEs, and promoting new business processes.

    Community integration and common identity projects that build identity, create a more cohesive society, promote positive relations through an increased provision of shared spaces and services.

    Demographic change and immigration is about projects tackling major societal challenges like demographic change in different areas and migration, in particular, aging society (active aging, best agers, silver economy strategies) and related new public services (adaptation of key services and infrastructure), social and spatial segregation, and brain drain. Also all topics on migration (policy tools, strategic planning, integration).

    All projects where ICT has a significant role, including tailor-made ICT solutions in different fields, as well as digital innovation hubs, open data, Internet of Things; ICT access and connecting (remote) areas with digital infrastructure and services; services and applications for citizens (e-health, e-government, e-learning, e-inclusion, etc.); services and applications for companies (e-commerce, networking, digital transformation, etc.).

    This is about the mitigation and management of risks and disasters, and the anticipation and response capacity towards the actors regarding specific risks and management of natural disasters, for example, prevention of flood and drought hazards, forest fire, strong weather conditions, etc.. It is also about risk assessment and safety.

    Education and training projects on expanding educational opportunities, reducing barriers in the field of education, improving higher education and lifelong learning, training and labour mobility, educational networks, higher vocational education, common learning programmes.

    Topics on energy management, energy-saving methods, evaluating energy efficiency measurements, energy rehabilitation/efficiency in buildings / public infrastructure, promotion of energy efficiency, cooperation among experienced energy efficiency firms, institutions and local administrations, co-generation.

    Projects focussing on wind, solar, biomass, hydroelectric, geothermal and other renewable energy, increasing the production of sustainable renewable energy and improving research capacities in biomass. Also projects focussing on storage and management of renewable energy, new technologies, sustainable regional bioenergy policies and financial Instruments for investments on renewable energy.

    Social projects concerning people with disabilities and excluded groups; enhancement of the capacity of children, young people, women and elderly; creation of infrastructure to improve access for disabled people, integration of socially vulnerable people; innovate in the care of victims of gender violence, social inclusion of women, etc.

    This deals with the development of health and social services and improved accessibility and efficiency for different groups (elderly, children, etc.). It is also about new healthcare models and medical diagnosis and treatments (dementia, cancer, diabetes, etc.), hospitals, care management, and rare diseases, as well as improving wellbeing and promoting sports.

    Projects about (organised) crime, efficient and secure borders, such as enhancing the effectiveness of the police in the prevention of drug crimes, the development of safety services, or tackling security and organised crime issues.

    Activities related to:

    • Transport and mobility covering all sorts of transport (incl. urban transport) and mobility.
    • Improving transport connections dealing with traffic and/or transport connections, rehabiliation/modernisation, better connectivity, improving accessibility/connections, but also public transport.
    • Multimodal transport and logistics and freight transport focusing on using different means of transport, developing multimodal connections, optimising intermodal transport chains; offering multimodal logistics solutions and providing access to clean, efficient and multimodal transport corridors and hubs; establishing cooperation among logistic centres and developing multimodal mobility strategies.

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    • urban development, such as planning and design of cities and urban areas, urban renewal, urban-rural links (climate, sustainable mobility, water efficiency, participation, sustainable land use, smart cities, public urban areas, regeneration)
    • regional planning and development, such as the implementation of regional development policies/instruments and programmes, sustainable land use management plans, integrated regional action plans, spatial planning, and marine protected area management.
    • rural and peripheral development, referring to remote, sparsely populated areas, rural community development, and rural economics, in particular access to remote areas and policies for rural areas.
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Deadline expired

The deadline for this call has expired.

Call key data

Developing support mechanisms for Energy Communities

Funding Program

LIFE - sub-programme “Clean Energy Transition”

Call number

LIFE-2024-CET-ENERCOM

deadlines

Opening
18.04.2024

Deadline
19.09.2024 17:00

Funding rate

95%

Call budget

€ 7,000,000.00

Estimated EU contribution per project

€ 1,750,000.00

Link to the call

ec.europa.eu

Link to the submission

ec.europa.eu

Call content

short description

This topic aims to foster the collaboration between local/regional authorities and energy communities.

Call objectives

Energy communities can help citizens and local authorities invest in renewables and energy efficiency. Community-owned projects can allow citizens to finance sustainable energy investments that deliver local economic benefits, social cohesion, and/or address other priorities such as improving the energy efficiency of housing or reducing energy poverty. The role of energy communities in the EU energy systems is expected to grow in line with the REPowerEU plan. As part of that, for instance, the EU Solar Strategy defined the target of setting up at least 1 renewables-based Energy Community in every municipality with more than 10,000 inhabitants by 2025.

Developing and realising projects can be complex for energy communities due to the regulatory and policy context (e.g. changing national support schemes for renewables, burdensome licensing, heavy administrative procedures, etc.). For relatively small and citizen-led actors like energy communities, there are some additional practical challenges such as lack of information, limited access to finance, difficulties in aggregating small interventions or difficulties in engaging citizens and establishing effective governance and decision-making structures. These hurdles prevent energy communities around Europe from developing their potential.

An increasing number of local and regional authorities wish to make sure that more citizens and local communities benefit from the energy transition and play an active role in it. Supporting energy communities can be a way to achieve that and local governments are uniquely well-placed to support their development by creating an enabling framework for communities and addressing their development hurdles. Strategies to do so vary depending on the specific context of each territory. For instance, some public authorities may choose to directly (help) set-up and/or invest in an energy community, while others, may decide to open One-Stop-Shops (OSS) to support community energy projects, or procure public services and products from energy communities.

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Expected effects and impacts

Proposals submitted under this topic should present the concrete results which will be achieved by the planned activities. This demonstration should include a detailed analysis of the baseline, well-substantiated assumptions and establish clear causality links between the expected impacts and the workplan.

Applicants are asked to quantify the topic specific impacts (where relevant), the LIFE CET common indicators and any other project-specific performance indicators which they consider relevant for their action.

The impacts of the proposals should be demonstrated during the project and within 5 years after the project lifetime. It should be noted that the figures reported will be assessed considering the context in which they are generated and the relative difficulty of launching energy community projects there.

The indicators for this topic include:

  • Number of energy community projects supported.
  • Number of energy community projects created.
  • Number of operational support services for energy communities which have been tested, established and incorporated feedback from users.
  • Number of citizens taking part in energy communities as a result of the project.
  • Number of actors with increased skills in the area of community energy (local and regional authority officials or other relevant actors).
  • Number of local and regional authorities committed to replicate best practice experiences.

Proposals should also quantify their impacts related to the following common indicators for the LIFE CET subprogramme:

  • Primary energy savings triggered by the project in GWh/year.
  • Final energy savings triggered by the project in GWh/year.
  • Renewable energy generation triggered by the project (in GWh/year).
  • Reduction of greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO2-eq/year).
  • Investments in sustainable energy (energy efficiency and renewable energy) triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro).

Beyond the impacts above, proposals are expected to deliver (where relevant):

  • A robust strategy to continue providing the support services after the project ends.
  • A solid set of local enabling actions to create an environment where new energy communities emerge.
  • A piloted approach to create inclusive energy communities (e.g. including energy poor and vulnerable households, but also looking at other historically excluded categories).
  • Adequate financing mechanisms to support energy community projects at the local /regional level.

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Expected results

Proposals should focus on one of the two actions below:

  • Set up energy communities led by or supported by relevant public authorities aimed at supporting the achievement of local and regional energy policy objectives and actively and democratically engage citizens in investments and decision-making.
  • Develop support services for energy communities (e.g. One-Stop-Shops or other facilitation structures) supplying technical support to energy community projects by reducing the complexity of the process, simplifying decision making and stimulating the execution of projects. As a result of their work, these services should lead to local energy community investment pipelines. The design of the services is to be justified in each proposal taking into account the local context and existing support mechanisms.

In order to deliver on the actions above, proposals are encouraged to consider including some of the elements below (among other possible actions):

  • Creation of a supportive local policy framework for the development of energy projects (e.g. through community participation or investment quotas or public procurement). Provision of technical support to enable actors to set-up an energy community (e.g. licencing, energy commercialisation, business models, legal aspects).
  • Training and capacity building on energy community development for local and regional authority officials, local communities and other relevant local actors.
  • Creation of a supportive local policy framework for the development of energy community projects (e.g. through community participation or investment quotas or public procurement).
  • Support of active engagement and democratic governance by citizens in energy communities.
  • Facilitation of energy communities’ access to financial resources (e.g. through guarantees, seed funding for revolving funds, technical support for the early stages of project development, aggregation of small projects).
  • Development of services to support the operational phase of existing energy communities and/or enabling communities to pool resources for project development and operation (e.g. by creating umbrella communities/coalitions).
  • Development of specific support measures (or streamline access to existing ones) for specific target groups such as energy vulnerable and energy poor households.

Proposals submitted under this topic should aim at fostering communities fitting the definition of “renewable energy community” according to the revised Renewable Energy Directive ((EU) 2018/2001) and/or the definition of “citizen energy community” according to the Directive on common rules for the internal electricity market ((EU) 2019/944). They should adequately take into account participation and governance differences between both concepts.

Project applicants may choose to focus on one or more activities related to sustainable energy (production, transmission, distribution, energy efficiency, demand-response, etc.).

Priority will be given to proposals that develop areas in which community energy is less developed (in their specific context) including building renovation, heating and cooling or renewable gas market.

Proposals should demonstrate the support of the stakeholders which are necessary to ensure the success of the action (in particular, local or regional authorities).

Pilots can be energy communities (A) or support services for communities (B). Proposals should justify the potential for synergies between the selected pilots.

Proposals should make use of existing initiatives, networks and platforms as relevant and demonstrate that the EU funding will be used in an effective way by delivering actions that complement existing initiatives (e.g. national enabling frameworks for energy communities and the European Energy Communities Facility).

Actions should contribute to fostering the collaboration between local/regional authorities and citizen-led-initiatives in the field of energy and build on the tools and resources of existing Horizon and LIFE projects, as well as initiatives such as the Energy Communities Repository and Rural Energy Community Advisory Hub.

Proposals should justify the added value of including the development of any new tools, guidance and platforms considering existing resources. If included, applicants should carefully consider how to make them available to facilitate their re-use by other projects.

Projects should analyse and justify the effectiveness of different approaches to tackle the barriers of different sub-types of energy communities they intend to support (e.g. municipal-driven communities, citizen-driven communities, communities involving vulnerable citizens, communities in rural contexts) at different stages of professionalisation and foresee the provision of policy feedback.

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Eligibility Criteria

Regions / countries for funding

EU Member States, Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT)
Moldova (Moldova), Iceland (Ísland), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Ukraine (Україна)

eligible entities

Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)

Mandatory partnership

Yes

Project Partnership

Proposals must be submitted by at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries.

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

Entities from other countries (not listed above) 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.

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

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 persons.

other eligibility criteria

Financial support to third parties is not allowed under Call LIFE-2024-CET except for topic LIFE-2024-CET-SAP.

Additional information

Topics

Administration & Governance, Institutional Capacity & Cooperation, 
Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy , 
Rural & Urban Development/Planning

Relevance for EU Macro-Region

EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region

UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)

Additional Information

Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System (accessible via the Topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section. Paper submissions are NOT possible.

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) — contains additional project data and the project’s contribution to EU programme key performance indicators
  • mandatory annexes and supporting documents (templates available to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed, assembled and re-uploaded):
    • detailed budget table (mandatory Excel template available in the Submission System)
    • participant information including previous projects, if any (mandatory template available in the Submission System)
    • for topic LIFE-2024-CET-PDA: table of investments (mandatory template available in the Submission System)
  • optional annexes: letters of support

Proposals are limited to maximum 65 pages (Part B).

Call documents

LIFE-2024-CETLIFE-2024-CET(1462kB)

Contact

European Climate Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) - LIFE
Website

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