UK LIFE National Contact Point
In keeping with the Prime
Minister’s commitment to Parliament, the government has now
published the second tranche of technical notices setting out
what business and citizens would need to do in a ‘no deal’ EU exit
scenario so they can prepare accordingly. A Technical Notice
covering Funding for Life Projects can now be
found here.
The
joint report from the negotiators of the European
Union and the United Kingdom Government published on 8
December stated that UK entities’ right to participate in EU
MFF 2014-2020 programmes will be unaffected by the UK’s
withdrawal from the EU. This means that UK based organisations will
be able to bid for funding, participate in and lead consortia, in
2018, 2019 and 2020, and will continue to receive funding for the
lifetime of the projects. It remains the case that nothing is
agreed until everything is agreed, which is why in 2016 the
government
committed to protect projects that were successful in securing
EU funding before exit day.
On the
24thJuly the Government announced that
any funding secured through EU programmes, from now until the end
of 2020, will be guaranteed by the UK government even in a no deal
scenario. This new guarantee means that successful bids for EU
funding until the end of 2020 will receive their full financial
allocation and will continue to receive funding over a project’s
lifetime.
Further information can be found
here.
The EU LIFE programme
LIFE is the
EC’s financial instrument supporting environment and nature
conservation projects throughout the EU. Its overarching objective
is to contribute towards implementation and development of EU
environmental and climate policy and legislation.
The LIFE programme will contribute to sustainable development
and to the achievement of the objectives and targets of the Europe
2020 Strategy, the 7th Union Environmental Action Programme,
“Living well within the limits of our planet”, and other relevant
EU environment, and climate strategies and plans.
LIFE covers the broad width of environmental policy to include:
water, floods, marine and coastal management, waste and resource
efficiency, soils, forests, chemicals, noise and the urban
environment, air pollution, air quality, nature and
biodiversity.
The LIFE programme runs 2014 - 2020 and is split into two
sub-programmes; Environment and Climate Action, as illustrated in
the below schematic.
Environment & Climate Action
The Environment sub-programme covers three
priority areas:
- Nature & Biodiversity projects focus on implementing the
Birds and Habitats Directive and EU Biodiversity Strategy;
- Environment & Resource Efficiency projects focus on
trialling, developing and demonstrating approaches and solutions to
EU wide environmental challenges; and
- Environmental Governance & Information projects focus on
increasing knowledge and disseminating information.
The Climate sub-programme covers three
priority areas:
- Climate Adaptation projects focus on increasing resilience to
climate change;
- Climate Mitigation projects focus on reducing greenhouse gas
emissions; and
- Climatic Governance & Information focuses on climate
related matters.
LIFE Photo Competition Winner
The winner of the first UK LIFE Photo Competition is the
RSPB Isles of Scilly
project with the following photo which shows local
children celebrating the project's success. We thought it
perfectly captured the community engagement element of the
project.
St Agnes school children celebrate the success of the EU
LIFE funded project clearing rats from two islands in the Isles of
Scilly. Here they are removing apples which are potential food
sources for rats – the removal of rats is great news for protected
Manx shearwaters and Storm petrels, as well as the locally
important Scilly shrew © Lydia Titterton, RSPB (LIFE11
NAT/UK/000387)
Help and Support
JNCC is the UK LIFE National Contact Point on behalf of Defra
(Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and the
Devolved UK Governments. Our services include a helpline,
pre-screening of proposals for eligibility and fit, and advice on
administrative and contractual issues. For further information on
the support and advice on offer, please see the what we
do page.
Terms of use for UK LIFE Support
While the UK LIFE National Contact Point (NCP)
strives to make advice and information available as timely and
accurate as possible, the NCP makes no warranties, claims,
promises, representations or guarantees, express or implied as to
the accuracy, timeliness, completeness, or adequacy of the
information provided (or referenced therein), and expressly
disclaims liability for errors and omissions in the material
content. The NCP accepts no liability for the information we
provide or its use by third parties, or for the consequences of any
actions taken (or not taken) in reliance on the basis of the
information provided whatsoever, for any direct, indirect or
consequential damages arising out of the access, use or inability
to use the information provided.