Nature and Biodiversity
LIFE-2026-SAP-NAT-NATURE funds projects protecting and restoring EU natural capital in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems.
This call supports projects that help protect and restore nature and biodiversity in the EU. It focuses on implementing and enforcing EU nature legislation. Projects about governance and information are excluded here. Applicants must show credible conservation impacts and sustainability.
Likely relevant for
- Environmental NGOs
- Conservation organizations
- Research institutions in ecology and biodiversity
- Public authorities managing natural sites
- Consultants in environmental policy implementation
Project signals
What it funds
- Development, implementation, monitoring, and enforcement of EU nature and biodiversity legislation and policy
- Projects contributing to protection, maintenance, and restoration of EU natural capital in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems
Expected outcomes
- Achieve ambitious and credible conservation benefits
- Ensure long-term sustainability and replication of results
- Support EU objectives under LIFE Nature and Biodiversity sub-programme
Who can apply / participate
- Public bodies
- Private entities
- Non-governmental organizations
- Research institutions
- Check call document for consortium requirements
- Eligible countries as described in section 6 of the call document
- Projects focusing exclusively on governance and information are excluded from this call topic
- Applicants must meet financial and operational capacity requirements
- Exact eligible countries list
- Consortium size and composition rules
Must check before shortlisting
- Eligibility criteria in section 6 of call document
- Budget limits and funding rates
- Consortium composition and country eligibility
Money
Total budget for 2026 is approximately EUR 173.5 million for this call and related governance call combined.
- Total budget for LIFE-2026-SAP-NAT-NATURE — 173500000EURShared with LIFE-2026-SAP-NAT-GOV 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 and admissibility conditions in sections 6 and 7 of call document.
- Evaluation criteria and award process detailed in sections 8 and 9 of call document.
- Legal and financial set-up described in section 10 of call document.
- Call document and annexes available in submission system.
- Prepare proposal according to call document and application form templates.
- Submit proposal via Funding & Tenders Portal before deadline.
- Consult FAQs and National Contact Points for support.
- Add National Contact Point as contact person in application for support.
- Projects focusing exclusively on governance and information are excluded from this call.
- Check all eligibility and admissibility criteria 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 ambitious and credible impacts in terms of conservation benefit, ensuring at the same time long term sustainability and replication (see sections 2 and 9 of the Call document). Objective: To contribute to European Union objectives for the protection, maintenance and restoration of the Union’s natural capital in its marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems Scope: The present Call topic targets Standard Action Projects (SAP) aimed at achieving the objectives of the LIFE Nature and Biodiversity sub-programme by supporting the development, implementation, monitoring and enforcement of EU legislation and policy on nature and biodiversity, as defined in sections 1 and 2 of the Call document. Projects focussing exclusively on governance and information are excluded from this Call topic and covered by the related Call topic LIFE-2026-SAP-NAT-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.
Call document and annexes:
Application form templates
Standard application form (LIFE SAP and OAG) — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System
Participant information (LIFE)
Description of species and habitats (LIFE)
Letters of support
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Additional documents:
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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