LIFE-2026-SAP-ENV-GOV

Environment governance

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-SAP-ENV-GOV funds projects improving environmental governance aligned with the European Green Deal.

This call supports projects that enhance environmental governance to promote sustainability, circular economy, and climate resilience. It focuses on public administration and private sector activities to improve environmental quality. Applicants must select up to two specific sub-topics related to environmental governance for evaluation.

Likely relevant for

  • Environmental NGOs
  • Public administrations
  • Research institutions
  • Consultants in environmental policy
  • Circular economy initiatives

Project signals

Focus on environmental governanceAlignment with European Green Deal objectivesInvolvement of public administration or private sector initiatives

What it funds

  • Standard Action Projects (SAP) under Circular Economy and Quality of Life sub-programme
  • Projects targeting environmental governance improvements
  • Activities supporting public administration and private sector engagement
  • Behavioural change initiatives related to environmental governance

Expected outcomes

  • Improved environmental governance structures and processes
  • Enhanced sustainability and circular economy practices
  • Contribution to climate resilience and toxic-free environment goals

Who can apply / participate

  • Public bodies
  • Private entities
  • NGOs
  • Research organizations
  • Single-stage submission
  • Maximum two sub-topics to be selected
  • Eligible countries as per section 6 of call document
  • Compliance with LIFE programme objectives and call topic mandatory
  • Projects outside environmental governance or other LIFE topics excluded
  • Specific consortium size or composition requirements

Must check before shortlisting

  • Eligibility criteria in section 6 of call document
  • Compliance with LIFE programme objectives
  • Selection of maximum two sub-topics

Money

Total budget allocated for this topic is approximately €6.5 million for 2026.

  • Total budget for LIFE-2026-SAP-ENV-GOV — 6500000EUR
    Budget for 2026 only

Application notes

  • Single-stage submission model.
  • Proposal page limits and layout as per section 5 of call document
  • Eligibility and admissibility conditions in section 6
  • Financial and operational capacity requirements in section 7
  • Evaluation criteria and process in sections 8 and 9
  • Legal and financial set-up in section 10
  • Mandatory annexes include detailed budget and participant information
  • Optional annexes such as letters of support and maps allowed
  • Prepare proposal following call document and application form guidelines
  • Submit proposal via Funding & Tenders Portal before deadline
  • Include maximum two sub-topics under environmental governance
  • Add National Contact Point as contact person if support is needed
  • Only projects fully aligned with selected sub-topics will be evaluated
  • Projects outside environmental governance or other LIFE topics excluded
  • Check eligibility and admissibility carefully before submission

Derived from official EU Funding portal source · updated 22 Jun 2026, 17:17 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 topics as fully defined in section 2 of the Call document (under the heading LIFE-2026-SAP-ENV-GOV). 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: “Activities in support of public administration (…) private sector” and “Behavioural change (…) initiatives”) 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’). This call topic focus exclusively on environmental governance projects, other projects as defined in the related Call topic named LIFE-2026-SAP-ENV-ENVIRONMENT as well as LIFE-2026-SAP-NAT-GOV are excluded.

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
{
  "budgetYearsColumns": [
    "2026"
  ],
  "budgetTopicActionMap": {
    "114281": [
      {
        "action": "LIFE-2026-SAP-ENV-GOV - LIFE-PJG LIFE Project Grants",
        "expectedGrants": 0,
        "minContribution": 0,
        "maxContribution": 0,
        "budgetYearMap": {
          "2026": "6500000"
        },
        "plannedOpeningDate": "2026-04-21",
        "deadlineModel": "single-stage",
        "deadlineDates": [
          "2026-09-22"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "114282": [
      {
        "action": "LIFE-2026-SAP-ENV-ENVIRONMENT - LIFE-PJG LIFE Project Grants",
        "expectedGrants": 0,
        "minContribution": 0,
        "maxContribution": 0,
        "budgetYearMap": {
          "2026": "79000000"
        },
        "plannedOpeningDate": "2026-04-21",
        "deadlineModel": "single-stage",
        "deadlineDates": [
          "2026-09-22"
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}