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Call key data
Nature Governance
Funding Program
LIFE - sub-programme “Nature and Biodiversity”
Call number
LIFE-2024-SAP-NAT-GOV
deadlines
Opening
18.04.2024
Deadline
19.09.2024 17:00
Funding rate
60%
Call budget
€ 3,500,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
between € 1,000,000.00 and € 2,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
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.
Call objectives
Proposals should:
- promote 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
- establish new or, where in place, enhance existing cross-border, national or regional networks of compliance assurance practitioners or experts; and/or
- establish or, where in place, improve 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
- develop and implement 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
- improve relevant information systems operated by public authorities; and/or
- engage with citizens and others to promote and monitor compliance, and ensure application of environmental liability in relation to EU nature and biodiversity legislation.
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Expected effects and impacts
Applicants are expected to define, calculate, explain and achieve the expected impacts as described in the Award criterion ‘Impacts’ in terms of conservation benefit.
All LIFE proposals will have to report on their expected outputs and impacts taking into account the LIFE Key Performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs will contribute to evaluating the impact of the LIFE proposal on an environmental but also socio-economic level (e.g. via actions impacting the local economy and population). All the indicators measured should be coherent with the conservation or biodiversity problem addressed and the type of activities planned.
Applicants should review relevant indicators in Part C of the eGrant application and complete them with the estimated impact of the project. Part C data should be coherent with the description of impacts of section 2 of Part B of the Application Form.
In case Part C does not include impact indicators that are important for the specific project, applicants should make use of the indicator “Other project specific KPIs” in Part C and provide a relevant description of such indicators in section 2 of Part B of the Application Form.
If relevant, projects must upload a Geographic Information System (GIS) file and associated data of the specific geographical area where the intervention took place as a deliverable in their final report. This map should enable to spatially visualise the impact already reported in the KPI database. The specific format and technical requirements of the GIS files will be provided to the supported projects during their implementation.
More detailed information will be requested during project implementation.
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Expected results
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.
With regard to professional qualifications and training, projects should ensure academic credentials (or certificates) and maximise the potential of information technology through means such as webinars and massive open online courses (MOOCs) to allow distance learning to reach as many practitioners as cost-effectively as possible. Promotion systems and techniques could involve the use of guidance, advisory services, awareness-raising campaigns, partnership agreements, or self-monitoring systems that assist duty-holders to comply with environmental obligations.
Environmental compliance assurance practitioners can include those working for authorities and bodies with compliance assurance responsibilities such as local, regional, police and customs authorities, agencies and inspectorates, supreme public audit bodies, public prosecutors offices and the judiciary. They can also include non-governmental organisations, and academics and researchers specialised in one or more aspects of environmental compliance assurance.
Strategies and policies on compliance assurance in general and combating environmental crime in particular are aimed at high-level organization of activities and interventions, especially risk-based ones. Innovative tools could relate to different compliance monitoring systems and techniques, including site inspections, surveillance (including through use of satellites and drones), spot checks, intelligence-gathering, industry analysis, police investigation, data analysis and environmental audits. Follow-up and enforcement techniques can have a similarly wide coverage. Electronic complaint-handling systems, hot lines, citizen observatories and other citizen science platforms can all facilitate citizen engagement. Citizen science platforms may, amongst other things, allow competent national, regional and local authorities to engage citizens in state-of-the-environment and other forms of monitoring, while also generating more harmonized and useable data.
Promoting good practices, preparing guidance documents, organising trainings to ensure using an appropriate mix of administrative law, criminal law and environmental liability for a more effective implementation and enforcement of relevant Union environmental law, as well as to ensure more effective public participation and access to justice on environmental matters.
Projects should draw on existing modules and know-how in the area of environmental law training developed by the Commission and the Commission Notice on access to justice in environmental matters and related materials.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
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
No
Project Partnership
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.
Financial support to third parties is allowed under the following conditions:
- the calls must be open, published widely and conform to EU standards concerning transparency, equal treatment, conflict of interest and confidentiality
other eligibility criteria
Additional conditions:
- Sustainability: When designing their project, applicants need to take into account an obligation to maintain ecological effect of the project activities for at least 30 years after the project end. Applicants need to ensure that any LIFE-related investments into the management or restoration of natural or semi-natural habitats and habitats for species will lead to improvements that can be sustained in the long term. This often requires that such actions are taking place on areas that do already benefit from legal protection (as Natura 2000 sites or nationally protected areas), or that an adequate level of legal protection can be given to such areas during the lifetime of the project. Where the actions involve land acquisition and habitat restoration, the area in question should receive the most appropriate legal protection (nationally protected area, Natura 2000 etc.) with the view to contribute to the establishment of the Trans European Nature Network (TEN-N). For other investments that involve reducing pressures and threats (e.g. blocking of ditches or reducing nitrogen run off from agricultural land) on land which does not in itself have high natural value to justify designation, but acts as a buffer zone around Natura 2000 sites and/or protected areas, a long term contractual agreement (at least 30 years) to ensure that the pressures and threats are irreversibly alleviated is required. When this is not possible, the applicant should provide evidence that the investment made is backed by an appropriate land use planning at the most relevant administrative level. Private land conservation initiatives can also be supported in this context.
- Specific conditions for the following activities are listed in the call document (p. 15-23)
- Activities inside Natura 2000
- Activities outisde Natura 2000
- Species re-introduction and other conservation introductions/translocations within natural range
- Ex situ conservation actions
- Land purchase
- Long-term land lease, purchase of rights and one-off compensation payments
- Short term land lease or temporary compensation payments
- Ineligible costs concerning land purchase, one–off compensation payments and lease payments
- Ongoing management of habitats and recurring activities
- Infrastructure
- Green Infrastructure
- Compensatory measures
- Proposals following on previous LIFE projects and coordination requirements for multiple proposals aimed at the same/similar issue
- Annexes to the Application Form
Additional information
Topics
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)
project duration
between 36 and 84 months
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.
Project acronym — Your project acronym must include the word LIFE.
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 — contains additional project data and the project’s contribution to EU programme key performance indicators (to be filled in directly online)
- Mandatory annexes and supporting documents (to be uploaded):
- detailed budget table (mandatory excel template available in the Submission System)
- participant information (including previous projects, if any)
- Non mandatory annexes (but crucial to complement Application Form Part B when applicable)
- maps (template available in the Submission System)
- description of sites (template available in the Submission System)
- description of species and habitats (template available in the Submission System)
- co-financing declaration (template available in the Submission System): compulsory if external co-financing is foreseen
- letters of support (no specific template available)
- Annual activity report – N/A
- Other annexes – N/A
Proposals are limited to maximum 120 pages (Part B).
In case you have a co-financer contribution, kindly upload the related signed declaration among the optional annexes. Please indicate either "Confirmed" or "To be confirmed". If the status is "To be confirmed", this must be explained. Note that at a later stage, if successful in the selection process, you will be required to provide a signed declaration with status "Confirmed" as a pre-condition to sign the Grant Agreement
The maximum funding rate (% of eligible costs) is 60% with the following exceptions:
- 67% for projects targeting both priority and non-priority habitats and/or species
- 75% for projects targeting exclusively priority habitats and/or species
Call documents
LIFE-2024-SAP-NAT Call documentLIFE-2024-SAP-NAT Call document(1094kB)
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