LIFE-2026-SAP-ENV-ENVIRONMENT

Circular Economy and Zero Pollution

Status
open for submission
Programme
Programme for the Environment and Climate Action (LIFE)
Action type
LIFE Project Grants
Opens
21 Apr 2026
Deadline
22 Sep 2026
Fetched
15 Jul 2026, 07:18 UTC
Plain-language summary

LIFE 2026 call for Standard Action Projects on Circular Economy and Zero Pollution under the Environment sub-programme.

This call funds projects that support the transition to a sustainable, circular, and pollution-free environment. It targets Standard Action Projects focusing on circular economy, waste recovery, air, water, soil, noise, chemicals, and industrial emissions. Projects must align with the European Green Deal and select up to two specific sub-topics for evaluation.

Likely relevant for

  • Environmental NGOs
  • Research institutions in environmental sciences
  • SMEs in circular economy and pollution control
  • Public authorities managing environmental policies
  • Waste management and recycling companies
  • Chemical and industrial emission control organizations

Project signals

Focus on circular economy and waste recoveryAddressing zero pollution and sustainable resource managementTargeting air, water, soil, noise, chemicals, or industrial emissionsAlignment with European Green Deal objectives

What it funds

  • Standard Action Projects under LIFE Circular Economy and Quality of Life sub-programme
  • Projects addressing circular economy, waste recovery, zero pollution, air, water, soil, noise, chemicals, industrial emissions, and safety
  • Projects aligned with European Green Deal and recent environmental policies

Expected outcomes

  • Transition towards sustainable, circular, energy-efficient, and climate-resilient economy
  • Toxic-free environment and improved environmental quality
  • Achievement of impacts as per Award criterion ‘Impact’

Who can apply / participate

  • Public bodies
  • Private companies
  • Research organizations
  • NGOs
  • Consortia including multiple entity types
  • Consortia must comply with eligibility conditions in section 6 of the call document
  • Eligible countries as described in section 6 of the call document
  • Projects must select a maximum of two sub-topics from the call document section 2
  • Projects focusing exclusively on environmental governance are excluded
  • Specific eligible countries and consortium composition details must be verified in call document

Must check before shortlisting

  • Eligibility criteria in section 6 of the call document
  • Maximum of two sub-topics must be selected
  • Exclusion of projects focusing only on environmental governance

Money

Approximately €79 million available for 2026 for LIFE-2026-SAP-ENV-ENVIRONMENT projects.

  • Total budget for 2026 — 79000000EUR
    Budget allocated for LIFE Project Grants under this call

Application notes

  • Single-stage submission model.
  • Proposal page limits and layout as per section 5 of call document and Part B of Application Form
  • Eligibility conditions in section 6 of call document
  • Financial and operational capacity and exclusion criteria in section 7
  • Evaluation and award criteria in sections 8 and 9
  • Legal and financial set-up in section 10
  • Mandatory annexes include Detailed budget table and Participant information
  • Optional annexes include Letters of support, Maps, Description of sites, Lifecycle analysis, Business plans
  • Prepare proposal following call document and application form guidelines
  • Submit proposal via Funding & Tenders Portal before deadline
  • Include mandatory annexes and optionally supportive documents
  • Consult FAQs and Online Manual for guidance
  • Engage National Contact Point for support
  • Maximum of two sub-topics must be selected and only those will be evaluated
  • Projects focusing exclusively on environmental governance are excluded from this call
  • Check eligibility and admissibility conditions carefully in call document

Derived from official EU Funding portal source · updated 22 Jun 2026, 17:16 UTC. Use this as a shortlisting aid; the official call text remains authoritative.

Related calls

These funding calls are closely related and may be worth considering as part of the same funding landscape.

Official source text

Fine print from the EU source record. Expand when you need the original wording.

Topic description

Expected Impact: Applicants are expected to define, calculate, explain and achieve the expected impacts as described in the Award criterion ‘Impact’ (see Call document section 2 and 9 ). Objective: The aim is to facilitate the transition toward a sustainable, circular, energy-efficient and climate-resilient economy, a toxic-free environment and at protecting, restoring and improving the quality of the environment in line with the European Green Deal and recent policy developments. The specific objective is to cover one or more of the following topics as fully defined in section 2 of the Call document : Circular Economy and Waste Recovery of Resources from Waste Circular Economy and the Environment Zero pollution and sustainable management of natural resources Air Water Soil Noise Chemicals Industrial Emissions and Safety A new European Bauhaus Please note that the assessment of the extent to which the project is in line with the specific priorities of the call (part of Award criterion 1) will be done exclusively on the basis of the topics identified and described under section ‘Compliance with LIFE programme objectives and call topic’ of the Standard application form . Please also note that a maximum of two sub-topics shall be selected (e.g.: Air quality improvement and emission reduction of PM.... solutions and Sustainable road transport mobility) and only those will be considered in the evaluation . Scope: The present Call topic targets Standard Action Projects (SAP) aimed at achieving the objectives of the Circular Economy and Quality of Life sub-programme. SAP are defined in section 2 of the call document (Type of Action) while the general objectives of the sub-programme in section 1 (‘Circular Economy and Quality of Life’). SAP focussing exclusively on environmental governance are excluded from this Call topic and covered by the related Call topic named LIFE-2026-SAP-ENV-GOV.

Conditions and documents

Conditions

1. Admissibility conditions: Proposal page limit and layout

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.

2. Eligible countries

described in section 6 of the call document.

3. Other eligibility conditions

described in section 6 of the call document.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion

described in section 7 of the call document.

5a. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes

described section 8 of the call document and the Online Manual.

5b. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds

described in section 9 of the call document.

5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement

described in section 4 of the call document.

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants

described in section 10 of the call document.

Support information

Consult the FAQs in LIFE website Get in touch with your National Contact Point (NCP) . We want also to draw your attention on the possibility to get support from your NCP. To facilitate such support, it would be beneficial to add your NCP under the “Participants” step of the application, by clicking on “Add contact”. Then, Under “Project role”, use the option “Contact person” and add your NCP’s data. 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 evaluation to reporting on your ongoing project. Valid for all 2021-2027 programmes.

Raw budget overview
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