DUBLIN—The European Commission has launched its annual call for proposals to be funded under the LIFE+ programme, the European fund for the environment.
Proposals may be made under one of the programme’s three components: Nature and Biodiversity, Environment Policy and Governance, and Information and Communication. A total of €267 million is available, in the form of co-funding for grant agreements, and the call is open until July 15th, 2011.
The LIFE+ programme has three components:
LIFE+ Nature & Biodiversity projects improve the conservation status of endangered species and habitats. Projects under this heading contribute to the implementation of the EU’s Birds and Habitats Directives, the Natura 2000 network and the EU’s goal of halting the loss of biodiversity. The maximum co-financing rate can be up to 75 per cent for priority species and habitats, but is normally 50 per cent.
LIFE+ Environment Policy & Governance projects are innovative or pilot projects that contribute to the development of policy ideas, technologies, methods and instruments in numerous areas including air, water, waste, climate, soil and agriculture. This part of LIFE+ also helps projects that improve the implementation of EU environmental legislation, that build the environmental policy knowledge base, and that develop environmental information sources through monitoring (including forest monitoring). Projects can be co-financed up to a level of 50 per cent.
LIFE+ Information and Communication projects relate to communication and awareness raising campaigns on environmental, nature protection or biodiversity conservation issues, as well as projects related to forest fire prevention (awareness raising, special training).
Since the launch of the LIFE programme by the European Commission in 1992, a total of fifty projects were financed in Ireland. Of these, 36 focused on environmental innovation and fourteen on nature conservation. These projects represented a total investment of €99.6 million, of which €41.2 million was contributed by the European Union.
The current phase of the programme, LIFE+ (2007-2013), has a total EU budget of €2.14 billion. Every year, a call for project proposals is launched for its three components: Nature and Biodiversity, Environment Policy and Governance, and Information and Communication. Since October 2008, the Commission has approved two LIFE+ projects in Ireland under the LIFE+ Nature and Biodiversity component.
The projects carried out in Ireland to date have varied widely. Nature conservation projects included the reintroduction of the Golden Eagle into the Republic of Ireland, the restoration of wetlands, woodlands and raised bogs, and the restoration of stretches of habitat on the River Shannon for indigenous species. Projects in the area of environmental innovation included poultry slurry handling facilities, a project to re-use and recycle information technology waste, and a project to recycle waste wood into clean wood by removing contaminants.
For more information, visit http://ec.europa.eu/life/
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