Traditional projects - Climate Change Mitigation

Date de clôture : 7 sept. 2017  
APPEL À PROJET CLÔTURÉ

2. LIFE Climate Action

2.1 What is LIFE Climate Action?

LIFE Climate Action aims specifically to fulfil the following general objectives as set out in Article 3 of the LIFE programme:

•   to contribute to the shift towards a resource-efficient, low- carbon and climate-resilient economy;

•   to improve the development, implementation and enforcement of Union climate policy and legislation;

•   to act as a catalyst for, and promote, the integration and mainstreaming of climate objectives into other Union policies and public and private sector practice;

  to support better climate governance at all levels, including better involvement of civil society, NGOs and local actors.

In October 2014 the European Council9 set the 2030 climate and energy policy framework for the EU setting an ambitious economy-wide domestic target of at least 40% greenhouse gas emission reduction for 2030, as well as renewable energy and energy efficiency targets of at least 27%. The Paris Agreement vindicates the EU's approach. Implementing the 2030 energy and climate framework as agreed by the European Council is a priority in follow up to the Paris Agreement.

Specific approaches are required to increase integration of climate-related objectives into Member State practices, to address uneven and inadequate implementation of climate- related legislation in the Member States, and to vastly improve dissemination and promotion of climate knowledge and the according policy goals. 10

Projects under this call for proposals should support the implementation of the EU's climate policy and prepare the EU for the climate action challenges in the coming years and decades. The “Framework strategy for a resilient Energy Union with a forward-looking climate change policy”11 and the Commission Communication of 15 December 2011 entitled "A Roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy in 2050" (the "Roadmap 2050") acknowledged that testing new approaches to climate change mitigation would remain essential for moving to a low-carbon economy. Effective uptake of adaptation to climate change, as a cross-cutting Union priority, also needs to be ensured as acknowledged in the Commission Communication "An EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change"12. The Resource Efficient Europe flagship initiative supports the shift towards a resource-efficient, low-carbon and climate resilient economy to achieve sustainable growth, providing a long- term framework for actions in many policy areas, including climate change and energy. In addition, improved governance, in particular through awareness raising and stakeholder involvement, is essential to deliver environmental objectives.

Therefore, the sub-programme for Climate Action requires projects to contribute to one of the following three priority areas:

•   Climate Change Mitigation,

•   Climate Change Adaptation and

•   Climate Governance and Information.

Projects must choose which priority area the project contributes most to and indicate this in the application. It is encouraged, where relevant, for projects to contribute to more than one of those priority areas.13

Synergies with other environmental and climate policies should be a central theme of Climate Action projects; for example, climate change adaptation and biodiversity should be promoted, wherever relevant. The LIFE Regulation and, to a lesser extent, the EU Adaptation Strategy, highlight ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation. As this approach clearly results in synergies and multiple benefits, applicants should determine whether their proposal is geared, from its initial conception and design, towards adaptation to climate change or towards nature conservation, and thus apply for the relevant strand of the LIFE Programme. Examples of this may include proposals concerning peatland restoration, coastal realignment or river floodplain restoration. Projects in urban areas can also promote synergies between climate change adaptation and mitigation, in addition to environmental policies. Examples of this may include proposals concerning thermal insulation of buildings, green infrastructure and water savings.

Solutions, methods and approaches developed by projects under the LIFE sub-programme for Climate Action should be suitable to be scaled up and supported by private investments, other Union or national funding programmes, as well as financial instruments, where applicable.

With a view to optimising the use of LIFE Programme resources, synergies between actions under the LIFE sub-programme for Environment, in particular to protect biodiversity, and climate change mitigation and adaptation measures under the LIFE sub-programme for Climate Action, for forests and soil, water scarcity and droughts, as well as management of flood risks, should be fostered.14,15 Projects in one priority area that might undermine environmental or climate objectives in another priority area will not be funded unless this impact is clearly explained and justified in the proposal and the possible alternatives and mitigation and adaptation measures have been correctly planned if appropriate.

The experience of past LIFE programmes has highlighted the need to focus efforts on concrete environmental and climate policy priorities and areas for action. Those thematic priorities should not be exhaustive to allow applicants to submit proposals in other areas and to incorporate new ideas to react to new challenges.16 In line with the general objective of the LIFE Regulation, the project applications are especially encouraged to address specific climate challenges in each of the three priority areas, which are outlined below in the form of EU policy priorities. It should be noted that these priorities may be changed each year.

The construction of large infrastructure is considered beyond the scope of the LIFE Programme and will therefore not be supported.

2.2 What are Climate Action projects?

According to the LIFE Regulation, LIFE Climate Change Mitigation and Climate Change Adaptation projects must be pilot, demonstration or best practise projects.

•   Pilot project means projects that apply a technique or method that has not been applied or tested before, or elsewhere, that offers potential environmental or climate advantages compared to current best practice and that can subsequently be applied on a larger scale to similar situations. These projects aim to assess the effectiveness of the method, to inform other stakeholders of the results and to encourage them where appropriate to use the techniques and methods successfully tested in the project.

  Note that the application of an established solution action/methodology in a particular geographical region where it has not been applied before is not considered to be a "pilot" activity but a "demonstration" activity.

•   Demonstration project means projects that put into practice, test, evaluate and disseminate actions, methodologies or approaches that are new or unknown in the specific context of the project, such as the geographical, ecological, socio-economic context, and that could be applied elsewhere in similar circumstances. In order to achieve the required EU added value, they must be designed to demonstrate whether or not the target techniques and methods work in the project's context. A successful demonstration project is available to all potential stakeholders and aims to encourage other stakeholders to use the techniques and methods demonstrated in the project. Demonstration projects may have a higher EU added value if they take place on a national or transnational level, rather than on a local scale.

  As regards the demonstration scale, the project should be implemented on a technical scale that allows the evaluation of the technical and economic viability of the proposed pilot on a larger scale. The proposal must justify the choice of scale for the project in the light of the above. In particular, for projects developing decision support systems, planning tools or the like, there has to be a specific project action implementing the tool to demonstrate its technical and economic viability and to enable a comparison with the baseline situation.

  Note that the application of an established best practice action/methodology in a particular geographical region where it has not been applied before is considered to be a "best practice" activity.

•   Best practice projects means projects that apply appropriate, cost-effective and state-of-the-art techniques, methods and approaches taking into account the specific context of the project. They are available to all potential stakeholders to adopt and illustrate how this can be done.

 Information, awareness and dissemination projects aim at supporting communication, dissemination of information and awareness raising in the fields of the sub-programmes for Environment and Climate Action. They must especially serve one or more of the general objectives of the Climate Governance and Information priority area, in accordance with Article 16 of the LIFE regulation. Projects aiming to enhance climate governance and capacity building are strongly encouraged.

All projects need to contribute to the general objectives of the LIFE programme according to Article 1 of the LIFE Regulation. This means that the climate advantages demonstrated by the project need to have a clear intended application and a potential impact towards achieving a low emission and climate resilient society and/or the integration of climate objectives into the public and private sector.

In order to achieve the required EU added value, the monitoring, evaluation and active dissemination of the main project results and/or lessons learnt is an integral part of the project and its follow up.

2.3 Priority Area: Climate Change Mitigation

2.3.1 General scope and objectives

The LIFE Regulation states that to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions the priority area of Climate Change Mitigation has in particular the following specific objectives17:

•   to contribute to the implementation and development of Union policy and legislation on climate change mitigation, including mainstreaming across policy areas, in particular by developing, testing and demonstrating policy or management approaches, best practices and solutions for climate change mitigation;

•   to improve the knowledge base for the development, assessment, monitoring, evaluation and implementation of effective climate change mitigation actions and measures and to enhance the capacity to apply that knowledge in practice;

•   to facilitate the development and implementation of integrated approaches, such as for climate change mitigation strategies and action plans, at local, regional or national level;

•   to contribute to the development and demonstration of innovative climate change mitigation technologies, systems, methods and instruments that are suitable for being replicated, transferred or mainstreamed.

2.3.2 Link to EU climate policy objectives

Projects under the Climate Change Mitigation Priority Area should contribute to the transition towards a low emission economy and to reaching the EU target of at least 40% greenhouse gas emission reduction for 2030 compared with 1990 levels, as well as renewable energy and energy efficiency targets of at least 27%.

The Union climate policy and legislation aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions focus in particular on:

•   renewable energy,

•   energy efficiency,

•   the emissions trading system,

•   energy and greenhouse gas intensive industrial production,

•   land use, land-use change and forestry,

•   conservation of natural carbon sinks,

•   transport and fuels,

•   fluorinated gases and ozone depleting substances,

•   carbon capture and use,

•   carbon capture and storage18,

•   efforts by Member States and regional/local authorities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and

•   greenhouse gas monitoring and reporting.

2.3.3 EU policy priorities for the 2017 call

For this call, proposals within the following areas are encouraged:

•   Energy intensive industries (EII)

•   Fluorinated greenhouse gases

•   Land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF)

Moreover, proposals aiming at piloting or demonstrating technical solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through eco-innovation, circular economy and other means are encouraged to present "close-to-market". Such proposals should build on best available technologies and advance the technology readiness levels towards industrial and commercial scale. Industrialization and commercialization can already start during the LIFE project should be supported by a credible business strategy, including, for example, the development of a business model, investment and market analyses. Such proposals should also include a thorough replication and transferability strategy with respective activities and deliverables. The development of a credible business plan as well as a replication and transferability plan are compulsory deliverables for close-to-market projects. For further guidance, please see Chapter 2.3.1 of the "Guidelines for applicants 2017: LIFE Environment and Resource Efficiency".

1. Energy intensive industries

In order to reach the targets set out in the EU's 2030 Climate and energy framework and to contribute to the implementation of the 2050 low-carbon economy roadmaps, significant investments in industrial innovation and demonstration plants are necessary.

LIFE programme supports the development and implementation of advanced low-carbon manufacturing and processing breakthrough solutions. These are essential to maintain the competitiveness of EU industries while ensuring the climate objectives are reached. Proposals shall target energy-intensive industries (EIIs) and especially (but not exclusively) those industries which may be exposed to a significant risk of carbon leakage.

Therefore, priority will be given to projects focusing on the development and demonstration of innovative and cost-effective technologies and processes, with the objective of reducing the greenhouse gases (GHG) emission intensity19 of manufacturing and processing industries. Applicants for this type of projects are invited to consider the following key features:

•   EII proposals should focus on the design, development and implementation of innovative solutions mainly via demonstration programmes with a long-term impact, including in real industrial environments. Projects should deliver economically viable solutions, processes and technologies, new raw-materials or products that allow a significant reduction in specific GHG emission intensity20. The reduction of GHG emissions should not be achieved solely through fuel switching.

•   Activities are intended to start at Technology Readiness Level 4-5 and target Technology Readiness 8-9. Applicants can propose preparatory work, such as development of strategies and pre-feasibility studies on innovative solutions provided that these are used for the development of concrete activities implemented during the project. The activities are expected to be led by industries with support from partners and technology providers21.

•   The proposals may address a variety of technological solutions and processes with potential widespread applications or combine different technologies and processes across the sectors. Cooperation between industrial sectors is encouraged, and applicants should, whenever possible, seek synergies, including possibilities for funding from relevant national/regional research, innovation or climate programmes and/or cumulative funding.

•   Applicants should seek complementarity with other projects, in particular, the uptake of results of EU funded research projects, such as Horizon 2020 research projects. Please note that a bonus for uptake of results from EU financed research projects, will be awarded only if a brief but comprehensive description of such results and of how they will be used for the implementation of the LIFE project is included in the proposal.

•   A dedicated action should address the transferability of the developed technologies processes or products within the sector and possibly to other sectors. It is expected that they transfer solutions and technologies or enhance innovations of suppliers to energy intensive industries.

•   Projects should boost Europe's industrial leadership in advanced manufacturing and processing and foster employment particularly in the small and medium-sized enterprises and open new market opportunities in this field.

2. Fluorinated greenhouse gases

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and other fluorinated greenhouse gases do not attack the ozone layer, but are strong climate gases, therefore their use needs to be drastically reduced. This is why the Regulation (EU) 517/2014) on fluorinated greenhouse gases includes a so-called phase-down of HFCs by 80% by 2030. In 2016 an agreement was also reached under the Montreal Protocol (the "Kigali Amendment") to phase down HFCs at global level.

Projects under this priority area should, in particular, address the following issues:

•   Availability of suitable alternatives: In most HFC-using sectors alternatives are available today in a few application areas, however, there still remains an urgent need to innovate further and/or demonstrate the suitability (safety, costs, energy efficiency, fit-for-purpose) of climate-friendly alternatives. Other fluorinated gases, such as sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), and perfluorocarbons (PFC), have particularly high climate-warming properties (up to 23.000 times more than CO2); therefore it is a high priority to find suitable alternatives for their uses also.

  Demonstration, pilot or best practice projects showing the use of low Global Warming Potential (GWP) alternatives to fluorinated gases should be trialled in the following sectors:

  •   MDIs (metered dose inhalers = "asthma sprays") ;

  •   Air conditioning and refrigeration equipment for high ambient temperatures;

  •   ORCs (Organic Rankine Cycles);

  •   Heat pumps;

  •   Improving system design to address flammability/pressure issues to encourage use of natural refrigerants (e.g. hydrocarbons, CO2) for any kind of F-gas using equipment.

  •   SF6 use in electrical switchgear, in particular primary medium voltage, and high voltage;

  •   Fluorinated gases (SF6, NF3, PFCs, etc.) used in manufacturing processes such as in the electronics industry (semiconductors, photovoltaics) and other emissive uses (aircrafts, military, industrial processes).

•   Barriers posed by standards: Another important barrier to the use of climate-friendly alternatives to fluorinated gases are standards in the area of refrigeration and air conditioning. A major gap is that relevant information on risk management and minimization approaches for flammable refrigerants, in particular hydrocarbons, are not available to the relevant standard-setting bodies.

  Demonstration, pilot or best practice projects should demonstrate how risks of flammable refrigerants, in particular hydrocarbons, are minimized in design and use of equipment to maximize refrigerant charge sizes without compromising safety. The minimization of risks should be guided by objective data. This could involve bringing

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relevant existing information and research together as well as new complementary laboratory and field studies in support of standard setting processes and the work of existing standard committees.

3. Land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF)

In July 2016, the European Commission adopted a proposal for the inclusion of greenhouse gas emission and removals from the LULUCF sector into the 2030 climate and energy framework. Under this proposal, Member States have to ensure that accounted greenhouse gas emissions and removals stay in balance and that the overall LULUCF sector does not generate net emissions (the "no-debit rule"). The proposal stresses the importance of using spatially-explicit data to identify land use and land use change, by using existing EU and national dataset systems. It also builds on the existing EU-wide LULUCF accounting rules laid down in Decision No 529/2013/EU, which applies until 2020.

A key challenge for this sector is the collection or estimation of robust carbon data from forests and soils in order to enable transparent reporting and accounting. Another challenge is to incentivise measures ensuring that EU landscapes (forests, soils and agriculture) contribute to the Paris Agreement goals. These measures should be implemented in a manner that does not threaten food production, and should aim to achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions and removals by 2050, while conserving and enhancing both terrestrial sinks (carbon capture) and reservoirs (carbon storage). For this purpose, innovative solutions need to be tested and implemented taking particular account of their replicability and transferability across regions and Member States.

The LIFE programme will furthermore support projects tackling the climate change problems posed by soil degradation in its various forms. The effects of measures for enhanced soil organic matter and carbon storage need to be better addressed and more attention needs to be paid to the associated monitoring. A comprehensive assessment of the availability and use of sustainable biomass linked to concrete actions may also be included as part of a project, since the demand for renewable energy is increasing. Such land use measures and assessments would contribute to building a low-carbon economy.

Proposals should concern projects that can be replicated and transferred across regions and Member States (requirement), and are focused on synergies between environmental and climate actions associated with agriculture, forests and soils including their monitoring. Projects should in particular address the specific EU policy priorities listed below:

Land use sector

 New, innovative and cost-efficient landscape and land management techniques, to improve the implementation of mitigation measures such as:

o Preventing the drainage or incentivising the rewetting of wetlands (such as preventing further drainage and bog fires, incentivising restauration of mires)

o Selecting better crop varieties, in particular deep rooted species.
o Conversion of arable land to grassland.
o Extending crop rotations, use of cover or catch crops to reduce the use of

bare fallow.

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o Improving nutrient and fertilizer management, such as tillage/residue management, nitrification inhibitors, improve nitrogen efficiency.

o Supporting sustainable use and/or protection of rare/local crop and animal genetic resources.

o Championing and promoting measures to improve management of soils and maintaining land carbon storage capacity, for example, agro-forestry.

o Restoring degraded lands.
o Promoting climate-friendly forms of peatland management (such as

conversion to paludiculture).

Greenhouse gas accounting of land use

•   Build or strengthen the capacity to concretely use spatially-explicit data, exploiting existing EU and national data collection systems (such as LUCAs, LPIS/ACS and Copernicus), for the identification and tracking of land use and land use change.

•   Build or strengthen the capacity for monitoring and estimating carbon stocks and fluxes in forests and agricultural land at local, regional and cross-regional level.

•   Improve the monitoring and communication on the loss and degradations of carbon storage (such as grassland loss, degradation of former and existing peat lands).

  Projects can include:

•   Development and promotion of carbon auditing/foot-printing tools and related

  labelling and quality schemes.

•   Comprehensive land-use analysis on farms and incorporation of low emission

  practices in a broad geographical areas (e.g. region), for example application of land-

  use calculators.

•   Assessment of the potential for carbon storage or reduced emissions in public spatial

  planning.

  Sustainable Forest Management and sustainable use of solid biomass

 Develop and promote particular forms of climate smart forestry activities related to:
o Afforestation and reforestation.
o Conservation of carbon in forests.
o Enhancing forest management, including tending and thinning, and soil

conservation.

 Local
transformation of biomass into long term carbon stores (material substitution).

value-chain exploration and facilitation of low-carbon production and

•   Assessment and implementation of carbon's life cycle flows in biomass in communities' economic processing chains, i.e. cascading principle.

•   Deployment of new approaches (e.g. model cities or regions) for producing, consuming and governing biomass in a sustainable way, with a transformational impact (i.e. a lasting behavioural change in the targeted sector or region).

•   Efficient conversion of biomass (with a focus on biomass from waste and residues) into sources of renewable energy and feedstocks for the bio-economy with a view to obtain high GHG savings from the substitution of fossil energy and materials

  • o Demonstration plants

  • o Supply chain organisations

  • o Heat and power co-generation, with possible links to integrate material and energy production

•  Implementation of low-carbon forestry technologies and connect public and private sector practices with transformational impact.

2.5.4 How to prepare a LIFE Climate project proposal?

Logical steps to conceive a project proposal

1. Identify the problem the proposal aims to address in form B.2

Applicants must demonstrate a solid understanding of the problem targeted by describing it and quantifying it in a complete and convincing way in the project proposal (to the extent that this is reasonably possible, depending also on the nature and subject of the project). The description of the problem should include information on the root causes of the problem, the severity and extent of the problem in the specific context targeted. Applicants should describe how the problem specifically affects the stakeholders of the projects. Please note that the evaluation will be based only on the information provided in the document, therefore it is utterly important to provide a clear and comprehensive description of the problem that needs to be addressed. Otherwise, it will be not possible to assess the rationale of the project and the logic of the activities.

Once identified the problem, applicants should check whether the problem targeted is clearly related to EU climate legislation and policy. It is advisable to check in the database on the LIFE website to see whether similar projects have been undertaken in the same field. Applicants could identify potential links, build on existing knowledge and use lessons learnt or solutions from past or/and ongoing project i.e. where a thematic database or platform of knowledge may have already been developed through LIFE projects, therefore the applicants should use/build on them instead of creating new ones.

Applicants should present a clear and complete analysis of the current situation (the baseline) in terms of climate/environmental and social challenges of their specific context. The description of the situation before the project intervention serves to indicate the starting point of the project. The baseline helps to demonstrate the logical links between the identified problems, their causes, the activities and expected results.

The baseline is also instrumental to assess expected impacts and to monitor the project's progress. In this regard, the baseline description should include quantitative and qualitative data, for example results of a survey indicating the level of awareness of civil servants about floods risks etc.

The baseline should include clear and specific information of past and ongoing projects in the same field led or not by the applicants. In particular, the proposal should indicate what has been achieved by past and/or ongoing interventions and what the added value of the proposal is compared to existing or/and past projects.

In case some information is not available or it is outdated, the applicants can use preparatory actions to complete or/and update the baseline. However, key data – at least qualitative data – should be provided to demonstrate the need and rationale of the project. The source of all baseline data should be provided.

Example of problems to be addressed by projects:

• -  Insufficient awareness among the inhabitants of region YY of risks of floods of the river XX.

• -  Technological barriers to the development of cost-efficient waste-heat recovery system.

2. Define what is to be achieved will achieve (expected results)

Expected results to be achieved need to be clear, specific and measurable. The simple implementation of, e.g., a communication campaign without achieving anything specific and measurable in relation to the identified problem cannot be considered to be a project objective and a positive result of a project are, for example, changes on attitudes and behaviours.

Example of expected results:

• -  Increased awareness among citizens of region YY of floods mitigation practices for the river XX.

• -  Reduce technological barriers to the development of cost-efficient waste-heat recovery system.

3. Define who will be targeted by the project

Applicants have to reflect carefully on the choice of target audience(s) with respect to the project objectives. The relevance of the target audience(s) for addressing the problem identified as well as the size of this audience are crucial aspects in the design of the strategy and need to be clearly explained. Projects focused only at local level risk obtaining a low score for this aspect unless they can prove that they represent high EU added value.

Example of target audiences for projects:

• -  The citizens living close to the river, the meteorological service, the local authorities.

• -  The producers and users of the waste heat recovery system.

4. Identify and describe the actions
All actions must be necessary to achieve the expected results and appropriate to address the problem. They must be adapted to the target audience identified. Applicants should design a clear strategy linking the individual actions in order to achieve the defined objective (applicants could apply the logical framework method). Proposals should provide a clear description of activities, presenting what will be done, by whom, by when who will do it, when it will be done (beginning, duration, completion), where it will be done and who will benefit from the activity.

For projects designed to increase awareness or understanding among the target audience, applicants have to demonstrate a satisfactory knowledge and understanding of current communication techniques and explain the choice and pertinence of the communication mix retained for the project. The elaboration of a detailed communication strategy/plan as a preparatory action for such projects is also considered to be a necessity, and the key elements of such a strategy should already be presented in the project proposal.

Moreover, proposals should include a 'put into practice' component in the project. Project should not only be limited to developing tools and methodologies but they should also include a realistic strategy with concrete activities enabling uptake and effective use of these tools by the relevant actors during the duration of the project and possibly after the project ends.

Applicants are invited to involve relevant stakeholders in the design and implementation of the project to facilitate synergies, multiplying effects and uptake of project results. This may include national or local authorities in charge of the implementation of relevant issues, e.g. Ministry of Environment department in charge of National Floods management plan etc.

5. Define indicators for monitoring the expected results of the project

These indicators should be closely linked to the objectives of the project, providing relevant information of what is expected to be achieved by the project. They should inform on the impacts on the state of environment/climate, whenever possible, as well as the impacts on the attitude and practices of the target audience. The project impact is measured in comparison with the baseline situation identified before the start of the project. Therefore applicants should clearly present the baseline data. Indicators measuring progress of the project (completion of tasks/outputs) are not sufficient to assess the impacts of project. In the proposal, applicants have to explain the appropriateness of the impact monitoring indicators selected and the impact monitoring regime (e.g. frequency) retained.

Example of impact indicators:

• -  % change in level of awareness compared to baseline measured by surveys

• -  % reduction in energy consumption of the waste heat recovery system

Applicants are encouraged to develop a set of specific impact indicators that are most appropriate to their project to be added to the mandatory LIFE performance indicator table. Even if the contribution of the project to the achievement of these indicators is only indirect or partial, such indicators provide an indication of the level of ambition and capacity to contribute to a remedy of the identified problem.

6. Define a realistic strategy to assure that project results will be maintained or improved and actions will continue beyond the project duration. It is advised to plan actions to ensure funding of such activities after the project ends.

7. Include substantive actions to replicate the approach/results of the projects in similar contexts in other regions, countries, sectors

Replication activities should go beyond dissemination of results and networking. In this context, identify and set up relevant contacts, build up a replication action plan including assessment of possible adaptations needed and funding opportunities, conduct specific actions to concretely put the techniques/approaches developed in the project into practice elsewhere.

Some lessons from past calls for proposals

Applicants are invited to pay particular attention to and reflect upon the following recurring reasons for such proposals failing in the past:

•   Poor identification and description/presentation of the environmental problem targeted and related awareness and governance issues, with limited or no background information and data. Poor description of the current (baseline) situation in the target area;

•   Lack or incomplete description of the value added of the project compared to ongoing or past projects led in the same field;

•   Lack of an implementation component including actions to ensure the effective use of developed tools/methodologies by relevant actors;

•   Poor identification and description of the target audience of the project;

•   Inappropriate target audience with respect to the problem targeted;

•   Actions not responding to the needs of the identified target audience;

•   No coherent strategy linking individual actions to achieve the defined objective and address the identified problem;

•   Poor or incomplete identification and involvement of relevant stakeholders in the design and implementation of the project;

•   Lack of a realistic strategy/action plan including concrete actions, beyond dissemination of results and networking, to ensure replication of the approach/tools in other contexts (other regions, countries, sectors);

•   No quantification or poor/limited quantification of expected results;

•   Indicators not specific/relevant to measure outputs or expected results;

•   Inadequate monitoring activities and monitoring indicators for monitoring the project's impact and results;

•   Low value for money.