The European Union’s LIFE programme has awarded 390 million euros to 135 new projects, the Commission said on Monday, an increase of 9 percent on the 2025 award. The EU money represents about two thirds of the projects’ 579 million euro total investment, with the remaining 189 million euros coming from national, regional and local governments, public-private partnerships, businesses and civil society organisations. The winners were selected from a record 1,095 applications under the LIFE 2025 call and cover all 27 member states plus Iceland, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Ukraine.
The largest block is nature and biodiversity: 29 projects across 16 member states granted 223 million euros in total, of which the EU provides over 151 million euros. Circular economy and quality of life projects take 163 million euros across 36 projects in 13 member states, with over 91 million euros from the EU. Climate resilience and mitigation accounts for 26 projects and 102 million euros, and 44 multi-country clean energy transition projects receive 91 million euros, almost all of it, over 87 million euros, from the EU.
Individually these are small grants next to the Innovation Fund awards announced the same day. Their significance is geographic and structural: LIFE money reaches municipalities, utilities and local project sponsors that cannot access capital markets, and the co-funding condition means the programme’s real output is the 579 million euro investment total, not the headline grant.