On February 19th 2013, the Commission officially invited “the entities recorded in the European Union or in Croatia to present proposals for the call to proposals LIFE+ 2013”.

The LIFE + programme

It is the 7th call since the launching of the programme in 1992, and to that day some 3708 projects were co-financed thanks’ to a 2.8 billion Euros grant, in favor of the environment’s protection in all the European Union.

The overall objective is to contribute to the shaping, the renewing and the building of the EU’s environmental policy, as well as the reinforcement of its legislation throughout the co-funding system. Therefore, the LIFE programme supports environment and nature protection‘s projects, in all member states, candidates and neighboring countries.

The 2013 Call

In 2013, new directions were settled around tree major area:
– Nature and Biodiversity
– Environment Policy and Governance
– Information and communication

1. The Nature and Biodiversity area

This year at least 50% of the LIFE +’s budget will be dedicated to this area, with an exceptional maximum co-funding rate of 75%, dedicated to proposals concerning the targeted habitats /species of both the “Bird” and “Habitat” directives.

The Nature and Biodiversity area co-finances the innovative projects planning on protecting, conserving, restoring and monitoring the natural systems and habitats, as well as the wild flora and fauna (biodiversity, genetic resources…)

2. The Environment Policy and Governance area

The Environment Policy and Governance area co-finances the projects who will contribute to the implementation of a European environmental policy but also to the development of innovative technologies, methods and instruments in the following fields:

•Climate change in order to stabilize greenhouse gas concentration
•Water in order to contribute to an enhanced water quality by developing cost-effective measures to achieve good ecological status (Water Framework Directive)
•Air in order to achieve levels of air quality that do not give rise to significant negative impacts and risks to human health and the environment
•Soil in order to protect and ensure the sustainable use of soil
•Noise in order to contribute to policy development and implementation on environmental noise
•Forests in order to provide a concise and comprehensive basis for policy-relevant information on forests
•Urban environment in order to contribute to the development of the environmental performance of Europe’s urban areas
•Chemicals in order to improve by 2020 the protection of environment and health from risks caused by chemicals
•Environment and health
•Natural resources and waste in order to develop and implement policies designed to ensure sustainable management of natural resources and wastes
•Innovation in order to assist in the implementation of the Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP)
•Strategic approaches in order to promote effective implementation and enforcement of the EU’s environ¬mental legislation

3. The Information and Communication area

Eventually, this last area aims at co-funding projects dedicated to support information, communication and prevention campaigns.

For all tree areas, the co-funding rate is 50% of the maximum eligible costs, for a global envelope of 278 million Euros

Eligible actions are:
– Studies, surveys, establishment of models, elaboration of scenarios
– Monitoring
– Assistance to capacity-building
– Training, workshops and meetings
– Networking
– Platforms for best practices
– Awareness-raising campaigns – Information and communication activities
– Demonstration of approaches and political instruments

Each proposition will have to be created and submitted using the online application tool ‘eProposal’ (https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/eproposalWeb/). All Project proposals will be sent to the national authority of the Member State in which the beneficiary is registered. Eventually, it is them who will submit the project to the Commission by 5 July 2013, 11:59PM.

For a Welcomeurope assistance in the project building and the designing of the applying procedure to the LIFE + call, contact WelcomEurope at 00 33 1 42.54.60.64