Priority 1: Strengthening foresters’ skills in biodiversity friendly forest management

It is expected that the specific project awarded in the framework of this call will have a substantial support to policy and legislative implementation in particular in terms of:

• Promoting the recognition and awareness of biodiversity friendly forest management;
• Increasing foresters’ capacity to translate the EU’s forest biodiversity ambition into practice on the ground;
• Strengthening support for EU biodiversity policy by key actors and stakeholders;
• Supporting the further development of relevant academic and vocational education opportunities;
• Exchanging and developing best practices in forest education and training between relevant actors.

Minimum expected results are:

• A report on training needs, challenges and opportunities for biodiversity friendly forest management;
• Training manuals for biodiversity friendly forest management in English, French, and German;
• Guidelines on organising and implementing field trips and courses for biodiversity friendly forest management.

Priority 2: New European Bauhaus - Supporting local strategies for an efficient and balanced use of space towards sustainable, beautiful and inclusive neighbourhoods

The expected result would translate into four qualitative, place-based transformation strategies following the values and principles of the New European Bauhaus (example of expected effects: limit urban sprawl, save resources, increase affordability of housing, preserve and upgrade existing buildings, diversify housing supply, etc), and an improvement of the capacity of the relevant actors. Regarding the latter, the applicants shall present how they work with data (e.g. what indicators do they use, how do they monitor them, what kind of a registry or similar do they use).

During the project, it is expected that the participating municipalities shall promote mutual learning and exchange of information between them. The project would also result in the identification of legislation, rules, and norms that present barriers for sufficiency and/or adaptability of buildings, both at national and local levels and possible solutions to overcome them.

The selected project will be encouraged to share their learnings with the New European Bauhaus Community and the NEB Cohesion Policy Community of Practice, and where relevant to work with the New European Bauhaus hub for results and impact.

Priority 3: Strengthening the fight against environmental crime in the EU and supporting the implementation of the new Environmental Crime Directive

This project is expected to contribute to the fight against environmental crime in the EU producing concrete results in the work of enforcers and to support the implementation of the new Environmental Crime Directive. In specific, the project is expected to generate significant improvements in the detection, investigation, prosecution, and prevention of environmental crimes, directly contributing to the implementation of the new Environmental Crime Directive.

The development of training materials will strengthen the capabilities of all actors along the enforcement chain, ensuring that they are better equipped in addressing the complexities of environmental crime. The same result is expected for the development of practical investigative tools.

The guidance on factors to be considered for assessing individual crime categories will contribute to clarify certain concepts used in the Environmental Crime Directive, it will lead to more effective enforcement helping authorities investigate effectively environmental crime cases.

Furthermore, the developing and establishment of statistical data collection tools aim at supporting competent authorities in monitoring criminal activities related to environmental crime. Such data will be essential to collect accurate, consistent and comparable statistical data on environmental criminal offences.

The organisation of trainings with the aim of specialising enforcers will lead to increased detection and successful prosecution of offences, ultimately deterring environmental crime and promoting stronger compliance with environmental legislation.

The analysis of existing investigative tools will lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges linked to the detection and investigation of environmental crime categories and it is aimed at overcoming such challenges.

The guidance on earth observation techniques and other newest technologies (e.g., AI) will contribute to successful enforcement and enhance the ability to monitor, and therefore respond to environmental crime, leading to a reduction in harm and damage.

Preparing a guidance on defining and differentiating the scope of administrative and criminal law enforcement measures is aimed at supporting competent authorities in ensuring an effective, integrated and coherent enforcement system. Although each Member State has a different legislative framework, such guidance will aim at facilitating the overall coordination of the administrative and criminal systems.

By organizing workshops and conferences, the project will foster collaboration among stakeholders, facilitating the exchange of best practices and expertise. This will result in a more coordinated approach to combatting environmental crime across the EU.

Overall, the project is expected to contribute to improving legal compliance, a more effective enforcement chain, and the development of a more robust framework for combatting environmental crimes at both national and EU levels. The materials which will be prepared will aim at providing guidance and sharing useful information and best practices among enforcers and competent authorities, and will provide an ongoing resource for  knowledge dissemination and collaboration. The impacts of this project will contribute to a more consistent and effective prosecution of environmental crime and result in prevention of and reduction in environmental damage caused by environmental crimes. Ultimately, this project aims at contributing to safeguarding ecosystems, promoting environmental sustainability, and ensuring strengthening the environmental rule of law in the EU.

Priority 4: Participation of consumer organisations and environmental NGOs in the implementation of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR)

It is expected that the proposed project will provide a substantial support to policy development and legislative implementation in particular in terms of:

• Increasing effective participation of NGOs and other non-profit organisations/Civil Society organisations in expert groups related to Ecodesign;
• Supporting the effective implementation of ESPR secondary legislation;
• Improving the consideration of impacts on consumers in terms of affordability, access to second-hand, durability, and the life cycle cost of product groups under ESPR;
• Increasing transparency and promoting the consideration of civil society interests in the related processes;
• Exchanging and building on best practices between relevant actors.
• Improving the standards’ representativeness of average real-world usage of energy-related products as well as non-energy related products covered under ESPR.

Proposals should include indicators which are specific to the proposed activities. The results and impacts at project end should be quantified and verifiable to the extent possible.

Priority 5: Capacity building on results-based payment schemes for the restoration of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes and implementation of the Nature Restoration Regulation

The aim is to build capacities for and facilitate the development and future implementation of RBPS for biodiversity on farmland in all Member States, in particular in those that do not yet have experience in this regard.

RBPS should be conceptualised and designed, to ensure simplicity and coherence for the beneficiaries, minimising the administrative burden while ensuring measurable environmental outcomes. This will be done based on knowledge gathered from existing schemes.

This will help make the schemes more attractive and practical for participants across each MS. The RBPS should also be designed such that they can be directly incorporated into planning instruments for the programming of future agricultural and environmental interventions by the Member State. This should ensure a continuation of successful RBPS beyond the lifetime of the project, leading to tangible improvements of farmland biodiversity over time.

Priority 6: Support fo Circular Business Model Mainstreaming - Boosting the single market for sustainable products and services

Promoting circular business models and the transition to CBMs, thereby boosting the circular economy and enhancing our efforts to develop a single market for sustainable products and services by:

• Facilitate capacity and capability building, hands-on practical guidance and training, as well as knowledge creation, for transitioning to circular business models, in particular for SMEs, microenterprises and SMCs.
• Increase the adoption of CBMs, ensuring an uptake and efficient, long-term sustainable shift towards circular business models, including in ESPR relevant key sectors, and in particular, by SMCs, SMEs and microenterprises, based on:
  • Increased awareness and knowledge about successful shift to potential CBM approaches, general as well as specific (sector, activity, geography) enablers and barriers of CBMs and how to ensure long-term viability and sustainability of CBMs amongst economic actors, including with regard to furniture and textiles as well as other potential ESPR priority products.
  • Availability of targeted hands-on guidance and tools on how to create and transition the business model (e.g. sectoral guidance), practices or individual products towards more circular approaches, channel finance and investment and foster partnerships.
• Strengthen market readiness and competitiveness of sustainable products.
• To ensure efficient project management, annual work plans with clear areas of work, core actions with determined actor responsible for its implementation, timing and deliverables are to be developed. The applicants are encouraged to develop or identify relevant and meaningful project indicators that would quantify the impacts of the expected outcomes and deliverables as well as assess the quality of outputs. These indicators should be included in the annual activity report.

Indicators, which can be considered include (non-exhaustive):

• Number of training schemes and capacity building activities developed;
• Number of trainers trained and/or trainings held;
• Number of companies, including in ESPR relevant sectors, benefitting from the trainings and using the tools/approaches developed;
• Number of pilots conducted;
• Quantitative and qualitative surveys to assess improved knowledge and progress towards shifting to CBMs;
• Evaluation surveys by relevant stakeholders

Synergies are expected to be achieved with existing EU platforms and initiatives, such as the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ECESP) – including existing content available on CBMs and the use of ECESP as a multiplier for content/materials generated by the LIFE project and/or stakeholder engagement activities - as well as the Enterprise Europe Network, particularly through the EEN Sustainability Advisors. However, other potential avenues to share/multiply content and effectively reach stakeholders to support the objectives of this call should also be explored.

The project should take into account the Communication on ‘Making sustainable products the norm’, the ESPR, as well as the technical report by JRC on new ESPR product priorities and the EEA report (link: https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/a-framework-for-enabling-circular).

The deliverables of this project should make efficient use of existing information and go beyond the findings (without overlapping or repeating) of existing research, such as the 2019 Interreg policy brief on circular economy business models in the EU (Circular economy business models in the EU) or Circular X (Circular X - experimentation with circular business models | Circular X)

Priority 7: Climate Proof Pollution Alert model : relevant for the Water Resilience Strategy and Zero Pollution geared to transboundary cooperation on water pollution incidents

The action must build upon existing international cooperation and communication systems and provide the opportunity to enhance the existing systems with additional functionalities that will enable the mainstream of modelling and increase hydrological knowledge skills.

The expected main result is the setting up and implementation of a transboundary climate proof flow and real-time alert model, generating data and tracing of sources to support water authorities in case of incidental or peak concentration causing pollution. The system must enable water authorities to respond timely to incidents and prevent environmental accidents and provide the possibility to trace back sources of pollution, including in the main course of the river and its tributaries.

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Priority 1: Strengthening foresters’ skills in biodiversity friendly forest management

The activities that can be funded are the following:

1. A preliminary identification of training needs among relevant actors on biodiversity friendly forest management, at national or regional scale, in line with the EU’s forest biodiversity ambitions;
2. Based on the identification of training needs:
   • The organisation and execution of trainings including through field trips and courses (online or in-person);
   • The preparation and distribution of training manuals in English, French, and German.

Applicants should have an expert understanding in biodiversity friendly forest management and a proven track record in respective training activities. Applicants should also have a good understanding of the wider EU forest policy context.

Priority 2: New European Bauhaus - Supporting local strategies for an efficient and balanced use of space towards sustainable, beautiful and inclusive neighbourhoods

This specific priority aims to support at least four small and medium sized municipalities from the eligible countries in setting-up individual short/medium-term plans for providing quality affordable housing through the transformation of existing building stocks and spaces in urban, peri-urban and rural neighbourhoods focusing on sufficiency and adaptability measures.

The plans should identify projects and present their intervention logic, expected impacts, the stakeholders to be involved and credible pathways for their financing and implementation. The proposed project would support carrying out comprehensive architectural and technical assessments for adaptability and land optimization, as well as activities that promote replication, demonstration, and transferability of project results results at larger scale.

The concrete output of the project would be a report including four qualitative, place-based tested transformation strategies following the values and principles of the New European Bauhaus, a pilot demonstration, a transferable and replicable methodology to other medium-size municipalities; as well as an improvement of the capacities of the relevant actors involved, eventually through training offers that can be further shared with other project developers.

The strategies would be fed by seminars with the relevant stakeholders, and a study with architectural and technical assessments of existing building stocks and spaces in neighbourhoods.

Each of the local authorities included in the consortium shall demonstrate advanced project ideas to repurpose or retrofit existing buildings or public space.

In addition, the applicants must indicate a project coordinator overseeing the four city projects and coordinating the work. The engagement of other relevant actors for the application would be a plus.

Priority 3: Strengthening the fight against environmental crime in the EU and supporting the implementation of the new Environmental Crime Directive

The list of activities and outputs to deliver under the project are described below. The project must include the following activities:

• Preparing training materials targeting enforcers specialized in preventing and combatting environmental crime (e.g., investigators, police officers, prosecutors and judges). The training materials shall target various actors of the enforcement chain in addressing the complexities of environmental crime; the training materials may provide general information on existing as well as new practices on combatting environmental crime. Guidance, also on methodologies, and possible related tools shall be the outcome of the training materials. Such materials shall be made available to the competent authorities who may need to deliver such training  according to Article 18 of the new Environmental Crime Directive.
• Preparing a guidance document on factors to be considered for assessing individual crime categories covered by the new Environmental Crime Directive such as on whether the damage or likely damage is substantial, whether the conduct is likely to cause damage, and whether a quantity is negligible or non-negligible, as set out respectively in Article 3(6), Article 3(7) and Article 3(8) of the new Environmental Crime Directive.
• Preparing and providing a set of methodologies and / or tools to support the Member States’ competent authorities to collect the statistical data as set out in Article 22 of the new Environmental Crime Directive.

Furthermore, the project must also cover at least three of the following activities, to the applicants’ choice:

• Organising and delivering trainings to enforcers specialized in preventing and combatting environmental crime (e.g., investigators, police officers, prosecutors and judges) by using the training materials prepared under previous point (a), in support to competent authorities according to the Article 18 of the new Environmental Crime Directive.
• Analysing the effectiveness of existing investigative tools, including the methodologies for their use, for combatting environmental crime in relation to Article 13 of the new Environmental Crime Directive.
• Developing new practical investigative tools for environmental criminal offences (both on detection and investigation) in view of supporting competent authorities in relation to Article 13 of the new Environmental Crime Directive.
• Preparing a guidance on earth observation techniques and other newest technologies (e.g. AI) for preventing and combatting individual environmental crime categories covered by the new Environmental Crime Directive, and ensuring compliance with EU environmental law.
• Preparing guidance in support to competent authorities on defining and differentiating the scope of administrative and criminal law enforcement measures regarding environmental offences.
• Organising workshops or conferences on supporting the implementation of the new Environmental Crime Directive or on combatting environmental crime overall, to identify and share best practices and useful information.

The material developed under the contract shall be in English, and translation in at least two other EU languages would be very appreciated to help country-specific practitioners using it. The material developed shall be in formats suitable for being accessible online. It shall also be suitable to fit in existing DG ENV online platforms for ensuring the continuation of its use after the end of the contract (in case it will be decided to move such material on DG ENV online platforms).

The consortium may include EU networks of environmental practitioners, for example networks of prosecutors, inspectors, judges, police and other enforcement officers; competent authorities from EU Member States including at local level, private sector entities, universities and other academic institutions, and environmental NGOs.

Priority 4: Participation of consumer organisations and environmental NGOs in the implementation of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR)

The first strand of work involves identifying, elaborating, and channelling the contribution of consumer and environmental NGOs and other non-profit organisations to the preparatory work on ESPR implementation:

• This includes presence in relevant stakeholder meetings, in the Ecodesign Forum and in other related contexts, and providing the coordinated positions from consumer and environmental organisations at those meetings.
• Other activities include (i) ensuring tailored communication to citizens, consumer and environmental organisations on the impacts and benefits of specific ESPR measures and (ii) providing advice to the European Commission as regards its communication activities in this policy area.
• The scope of work will cover several product groups or horizontal requirements in the first (5-year-) ESPR working plan, including specific work (preparatory studies), and additional work on more general issues (work plans, methodologies, unsold goods, public procurement, etc.).
• It should be noted that this first strand of work will be linked to project LIFE23-PRE-BE-Ecodesigned4LIFE. Exchanges with that project shall take place from an early stage, to ensure that the project’s workplan is adjusted if required, considering the timeline of LIFE23-PRE-BE-Ecodesigned4LIFE.
• The estimated/indicative grant amount to implement this first strand of work is EUR 1.8 million.

The second strand of work involves the following:

• Monitoring of (i) horizontal and product specific standardisation activities related to eco-design, energy labelling, and (ii) other standardisation activities related to ESPR product groups.
• Participation in and contributions to the Technical Committees and related Working Groups in the European and International Standardisation Organisations at different levels of the standardisation process.
• The deliverables will include regular progress reports, research reports, position papers, compatibility analyses, input into standardisation requests, guidelines, etc. 
• Ideally, a joint participation of environmental and consumer NGOs is desired to ensure due consideration of both environmental and wider consumer and end-user perspectives.
• The estimated/indicative grant amount to implement this second strand of work is €1.2 million.

To successfully address all of the above, it is expected that the applicants demonstrate:

• an expert understanding of the ESPR, and of standardisation activities related to improving environmental and sustainability aspects (including expertise in several product groups or horizontal requirements);
• a good understanding of the wider sustainability of products framework, circular economy and circular economy business models, and other sustainable product policies.

This proposed project will establish a peer-to-peer network, connecting public authorities, experts and practitioners from all Member States with a different level of experience in setting up RBPS. It will support Member States in setting up, piloting, monitoring, and evaluating their own RBPS by taking stock of existing schemes and bringing together environmental and agricultural authorities (including CAP managing authorities and paying agencies), biodiversity experts, farmers and other land managers, and farm advisors.

The project should leverage Knowledge and Innovation Systems (e.g. AKIS) to enhance the dissemination of best practices in the implementation of results-based payment schemes.

The project will also organise seminars, workshops, and field trips to successful demonstration RBPS sites. The project will undertake surveys with farmers in participating Member States to identify their interest and financial needs to implement the schemes on the ground.

This project will allow Member States to exchange experience in setting up RBPS, from the planning stage (Which aspects of biodiversity to focus on? How to monitor? How to link reward to the scores achieved?) to the recruitment and training of participants, and the administration of the scheme (e.g. the incorporation of result-based payments into administrative processes and infrastructure of national authorities responsible for CAP management and payments). This will enable Member States to set up and implement effective RBPS on the ground.

The consortium needs to include the relevant expertise in terms of management of natural ecosystems, ecology of the target groups of organisms (including farmland birds, pollinators, and grassland butterflies), grassland management, and agriculture.

It is expected that the public authorities in charge of managing and supporting schemes for biodiversity restoration, as well as authorities in charge of budgetary control, are involved in the networking activities organised by the consortium.

Priority 6: Support fo Circular Business Model Mainstreaming - Boosting the single market for sustainable products and services

Activities expected under this project are listed below.

Knowledge creation and sharing:

• Efficiently collect and analyse existing knowledge (such as best practices, CBM theory, enablers and barriers to CBMs) and develop new content (such as sectoral guidance, checklists, tools) for SMEs, microenterprises and small mid-caps to help them become more circular. The outputs should be targeted to specific fields of activity/sectors or products and address the needs, and particularities of SMEs, SMCs and microenterprises. The activity could also include mapping of funding/financing support available for circular transitions/sustainability matters on EU and/or national level to support companies to identify and benefit from available financing/funding.
• Efficiently collect and curate (including via digital tools/data scraping) CBM theory and best practices and translate the theory into practical, easy-to-use guidance for businesses and business support organisation to share e.g. in presentations, guidelines, or tools and make them available free of charge including via existing platforms/networks such as the European Cluster Collaboration Platform or the EU Circular Economy stakeholder platform.

Pilot sector demonstrations: Gather tangible examples from selected pilot sectors such as furniture or textiles and utilise them to generate usable step-by-step analysis and targeted recommendations to guide companies in adopting CBMs - identifying viable circular approaches and successfully transforming their business model or products to become more circular.

Capacity building and advisory support:

• Develop, deliver and fine-tune training and provide practical hands-on guidance (checklists, information materials, tools) to support the identification/creation of and successful transition to CBMs including targeted approaches for SMEs, SMCs and microenterprises and ‘train-the-trainers’. All outputs should be available for/shared with - free of charge - any relevant/interested organisation such as the as the European Cluster Collaboration Platform or the EU Circular Economy stakeholder platform.
• Organise training for EEN sustainability advisers in EEN hubs towards on-the-ground training/targeted business advisory on circular business model creation/identification as well as uptake/transformation. This can also include guidance on how to proactively identify and approach companies with a potential to apply circular practices.

Networking and outreach: Identify useful networks, hubs, sector organisations and other intermediaries that could further expand outreach and spread the information and tools developed within relevant sectors/economic operators in addition to EEN, ECESP or the ECCP.

Feedback and impact assessment: Utilise the piloting work/advisory role of EEN or other multipliers to get structured feedback from business, in particular SMEs, microenterprises and SMCs on barriers, concerns and challenges related to circular transitions. Develop project indicators to measure progress.

Applicants/Consortia are expected to have a broad and representative geographical as well as sectorial reach capturing also national, regional or sectoral differences in awareness/uptake of circular business models/players involved as well as individual support needs based on such differences. Hence, multi-country and multi-sectoral consortia will be encouraged.

Whilst academic participation on concepts/theory of circular business models would be seen a beneficial, partners must also be able to translate these concepts and adapt them to be able to support companies (of different scale, maturity and sectors/CBMs) ‘on the ground’ with tangible actions/recommendations targeted at their situation. Industry participation, related to piloting activities will be seen as beneficial.

Priority 7: Climate Proof Pollution Alert model : relevant for the Water Resilience Strategy and Zero Pollution geared to transboundary cooperation on water pollution incidents

Here below the list of activities and outputs to deliver under the project.

• Development / procurement, installation and testing of Climate proof Pollution Alert Modelling and tracing system;
• Capacity building activities targeted to water authorities and related to the Climate proof Pollution Alert Model system principles and functioning;
• Dissemination of the Climate proof Pollution Alert Model and its functioning;
• Enabling of replication of the model in other Basins;
• information to interested water authorities, environmental protection organisations, drinking water companies etc in other European transboundary river basins;
• report on its functioning.

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