LIFE Clean Energy Transition – Standard Action Project

Topic updates

23 January 2025

23 September 2024

Call LIFE-2024-CET has closed on 19 September 2024.

310 proposals have been submitted.

The breakdown per topic is:

LIFE-2024-CET-SAP: 31 proposals

Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in February 2025.

LIFE Clean Energy Transition – Standard Action Project

TOPIC ID: LIFE-2024-CET-SAP

Type of grant: Call for proposals

General information

Programme: Programme for Environment and Climate Action (LIFE)

Call: LIFE Clean Energy Transition (LIFE-2024-CET)

Type of action: LIFE-PJG LIFE Project Grants

Type of MGA: LIFE Action Grant Budget-Based [LIFE-AG]

Status: Open for submission

Deadline model: single-stage

Opening Date: 18 April 2024

Deadline dates: 19 September 2024 17:00 (Brussels time)

Topic description

Objective:

This topic aims to complement the main Coordination and Support Actions (CSAs) under the LIFE Clean Energy Transition work-programme 2024, with a Call for LIFE Standard Action Projects (SAPs), co-financing action in the area of the clean energy transition with up to 60% of the eligible costs specifically addressed to support bottom-up actions by key actors of the EU energy transition.

SAPs are a flexible tool available to support actions from key commercial and non-commercial actors of the EU energy transition, which includes entities from all sectors (public, non-governmental and private). They are preferably close-to-market (i.e. aimed not only at delivering improved clean energy solutions, but also at making sure such solutions are widely taken up by society in general and, more particularly, by the economy through an explicit market-oriented approach). In this case, applicants will be required to highlight specific market-related information in their application (e.g. planned production capacity, reference market, economic feasibility etc.).

Actions under this topic should contribute to the implementation of the EU’s energy efficiency and renewable energy policy and legislation and demonstrate their positive contribution to the overall clean and fair energy transition.

This topic aims to support actions from key commercial and non-commercial actors in the clean energy transition, involving in particular local and regional authorities, energy agencies, energy service companies (ESCOs), financial institutions and EU manufacturers of net-zero energy technologies.

Scope:

The focus of the actions under this Call should address one of the following areas:

• Support local and regional authorities in establishing new energy agencies to support the delivery of the clean energy transition on the ground, including synergies with other areas addressed by the LIFE Programme and contributing to a carbon neutral future;
• Support energy service companies (ESCOs) in piloting and rolling-out ambitious investment and financial solutions for deep energy renovation of buildings, such as EnPC or similar contractual arrangements.
• Support financial institutions, brokers, insurers and other actors involved in the energy financing areas, as well as public-private partnerships, in developing and marketing financial products and solutions to finance investments in energy efficiency and integrated renewables.
• Support EU manufacturers of net-zero energy technologies to roll-out innovative techniques, including activities such astheidentification of needs for regulatory updates where relevant (e.g. regulatory sandboxes), along with fostering collaboration with all actors in the value-chains to increase the market uptake and large-scale deployment of their clean energy solutions in line with the Green Deal Industrial Plan and the Net-Zero Industry Act.

Proposals should address one of the above listed points. Addressing more than one point does not increase the relevance of the proposal.

Actions should provide the right mix of activities that will ensure their sustainability and replicability after LIFE CET support.

Proposals may be submitted by a single applicant from a single eligible country.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 1.5 million would allow the specific objectives to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:

Proposals should present the concrete results which will be delivered by the activities and demonstrate how these results will contribute to deliver impact on the relevant markets and stakeholders. This impact should be quantified with indicators which are specific to the proposed activities. Proposals should include a detailed analysis of the starting point and a set of well-substantiated assumptions and establish clear causality links between the results and the expected impacts. The results and impacts should be quantified for the end of the project and for 5 years after the end of the project.

Proposals should also quantify their impacts (when relevant) against the following common indicators for the LIFE Clean Energy Transition 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).
• Number of pieces of legislation, policies or strategies created/adapted to support sustainable energy policies.
• Number of products (goods or services), processes and methods launched into the market by the project.
• Number of real-life implementation sites carried out by the project.
• Number of market stakeholders trained with increased clean energy transition skills and competencies due to the project.
• Number of stakeholders reached through events and media during the project.
• Number of jobs created in full-time equivalent (FTE).

Conditions

1.Admissibility conditions: 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 and in section 5 of thecall document

2. Eligible countries:described in section 6 of of the call document

3. Other eligibility conditions:described in section 6 of the call document

For topics LIFE-2024-CET-OSS, LIFE-2024-CET-RENOPUB, LIFE-2024-CET-PDA and LIFE-2024-CET-SAP: proposals must be submitted by at least one applicant from an eligible country.

For all topics, the coordinator must be established in an eligible country.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion:described insection 7 of the call document

5.Evaluation and award:

• Award criteria, scoring and thresholds:described in section 9 of the call document

• Submission and evaluation processes:describedsection 8 of the call document and theOnline Manual

• Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement:described in section 4 of the call document

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants:describedin section 10 of the call document

Start submission

To access the Electronic Submission Service, please click on the submission-button next to the type of action and the type of model grant agreement that corresponds to your proposal. You will then be asked to confirm your choice, as it cannot be changed in the submission system. Upon confirmation, you will be linked to the correct entry point.

To access existing draft proposals for this topic, please login to the Funding & Tenders Portal and select the My Proposals page of the My Area section.

Get support

Please read carefully all provisions below before the preparation of your application.

We want to draw your attention to the possibility to get support from your National Contact Point(NCP).

Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ– Submission of proposals.

IT Helpdesk– Contact the IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc.

Online Manual– Step-by-step online guide through the Portal processes from proposal preparation and submission to reporting on your on-going project. Valid for all 2021-2027 programmes.