LIFE Operating Grants

Topic description

Expected Impact: The LIFE operating grants for non-profit making entities aim to strengthen the participation of civil society in the EU policy dialogue, as well as to support implementation and enforcement of Union environmental and climate objectives, including the clean energy transition, by the beneficiaries. Objective: This call for proposals concerns LIFE Specific Operating Grant Agreements (SGA OG) . LIFE Specific Operating Grant Agreements will only be concluded with organisations that have successfully signed a LIFE 2026 Operating Grant Framework Partnership Agreements (FPA OG) . Framework Partnership Agreements (FPAs) under the LIFE Programme are long-term cooperation instruments that serve as umbrella for regular or recurrent grants to non-profit making entities which are involved in the development, implementation and enforcement of EU legislation and policy and which are primarily active in the field of environment or climate action, including energy transition, in line with the objectives of the LIFE Programme. They are a prerequisite for being able to sign annual Specific Operating Grant Agreements (SGAs), but do not create any legitimate expectations or entitlement to get them. Applicants to the LIFE-2026-NGO-OG-SGA call for proposals MUST ALSO APPLY to the LIFE-2026-NGO-OG-FPA call for proposals. Scope: Operating grants provide general financial support to the successful organisations. They do not support a specific project (like action grants), but the annual operating budget (or part of it) of the organisation. Operating grants follow the same rules for the grant agreements as action grants, but do not differentiate between direct and indirect costs. Operating grants are always mono-beneficiary grants supporting the annual activities of an organisation. Further details can be found in the call document.

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: Call document Application form template Standard application form (LIFE OG FR NGOs) — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System Mandatory Annex to the application form Detailed budget table (LIFE OG FR NGOs) Model Grant Agreements (MGA) LIFE Operating Grants Flat Rate MGA Additional documents: LIFE Multiannual Work Programme 2025-2027 LIFE Regulation 2021/783 EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

Budget overview

{
  "budgetTopicActionMap": {
    "114289": [
      {
        "action": "LIFE-2026-NGO-OG-SGA - LIFE-FPA-OG LIFE Operating Grants Framework Partnerships",
        "budgetYearMap": {
          "2026": "14500000"
        },
        "deadlineDates": [
          "2026-09-22"
        ],
        "deadlineModel": "single-stage",
        "expectedGrants": 0,
        "maxContribution": 0,
        "minContribution": 0,
        "plannedOpeningDate": "2026-05-12"
      }
    ]
  },
  "budgetYearsColumns": [
    "2026"
  ]
}