Alleviating household energy poverty in Europe

The LIFE-2025-CET-ENERPOV grant is part of the LIFE Clean Energy Transition Program, targeting the alleviation of household energy poverty across Europe. It has a total budget of 6 million euros with each proposal eligible to request up to 1.75 million euros. The application is a single-stage open call, set to open on April 24, 2025, and close on September 23, 2025, at 17:00 Brussels time. The funding rate is 95%, indicating a proposal co-funding requirement of at least 5%.

Eligible applicants must be part of consortiums comprising at least three entities from three different eligible European countries. Applicants can include national, regional, and local authorities, societal intermediaries, consumer organizations, housing sector representatives, and healthcare providers, along with homeowners or tenant associations.

The grant aims to support projects that focus on either developing policies and coordination structures or renovating residential buildings occupied by energy-poor inhabitants. The first scope encourages support for public authorities in establishing long-term coordination structures and provides tailored policy aid compliant with the Energy Efficiency Directive. The second scope addresses the energy renovation of multi-apartment buildings with energy-poor residents, focusing on overcoming regulatory and governance barriers while considering residents' rights.

Projects must demonstrate measurable impacts, including improved energy efficiency, reduced energy costs for vulnerable households, and establishing housing observatories. Potential improvements include better social inclusion and enhanced living conditions for energy-poor households.

Proposals must address issues like summer energy poverty and should engage public and private stakeholders to create a collaborative approach to energy solutions. Overall, this grant incentivizes innovative solutions to enhance energy efficiency and support a socially inclusive energy transition aligned with the European Green Deal.

The LIFE-2025-CET-ENERPOV call, part of the LIFE Clean Energy Transition Programme, aims to alleviate household energy poverty in Europe. This is a LIFE Project Grant (LIFE-PJG) with a budget of 6,000,000 EUR. The call adopts a single-stage submission model, opening on April 24, 2025, and closing on September 23, 2025, at 17:00 Brussels time. The funding rate for Other Action Grants (OAGs) is 95%.

The objective of this call is to address the increasing share of income European households spend on energy, which leads to higher rates of energy poverty and negatively affects living conditions, well-being, and health. The call aims to support the European Green Deal's socially just and inclusive energy transition, aligning with the Fit for 55 package and the recast Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). It focuses on empowering and protecting energy-poor individuals by implementing energy efficiency improvement measures, addressing the split incentive dilemma, and removing barriers to energy efficiency in multi-owner properties.

The scope of the call includes actions that contribute to actively alleviating energy poverty, building on existing initiatives like the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub and the energy poverty pillar of the Covenant of Mayors. Proposals are encouraged to focus on alleviating summer energy poverty or addressing geographic areas with less developed energy poverty alleviation measures.

The proposed action should cover only one of the two scopes:

Scope A: Policy and coordination support to public authorities and stakeholders. Actions should support national, regional, and/or local authorities and societal intermediaries in setting up long-term, cross-sectoral coordination structures to tackle energy poverty. These structures should foster collaboration across government levels and social intermediaries, potentially including the establishment of national energy poverty observatories. Capacity-building activities for authorities and intermediaries are also expected. Actions should deliver tailored policy support to national authorities on implementing relevant provisions of the EED (recast), helping them design and take concrete policy actions to empower and protect energy-poor households. Relevant stakeholders such as consumer organizations, the housing sector, and healthcare providers should be directly involved.

Scope B: Support for residential multi-apartment building renovation. Actions should support the energy renovation of residential multi-apartment buildings with energy-poor inhabitants. The focus should be on reinforcing and adapting the governance and decision-making structures of building management and homeowners or tenants associations, tackling regulatory framework barriers, split incentives, and coordinating relevant support services. Renovation actions should consider the residents' ability to remain in their homes after the works, avoiding renovictions, and may include renewable energy solutions. Homeowners, tenant associations, and housing organizations should be directly involved.

Proposed actions should consider multiple benefits from energy efficiency and renewable energy measures for energy-poor target groups, such as improved health, comfort, air quality, and social inclusion. Specific attention could be paid to particular groups more at risk of energy poverty, considering gender where relevant. New IT tools, databases, or platforms are discouraged unless their added value is justified and their potential scale-up is convincingly addressed.

Proposals must be submitted by at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries. The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 1.75 million would allow the specific objectives to be addressed appropriately.

Expected impacts include: Improved collaboration and knowledge exchange between public authorities and social intermediaries, increased understanding and expertise in public authorities, and more effective implementation of EED provisions.

Indicators for this topic include: Number of energy-poor households with reduced energy costs, number of residential multi-apartment buildings renovated, number of governance and decision-making structures adapted, number of agreements concluded between homeowners and tenant associations, number of energy poverty observatories and coordination structures established, quantified multiple benefits for energy-poor households, number of energy-poor consumers benefitting from the activities, number of legislative or implementing acts created/adapted, and other environmental impacts.

Proposals should also quantify their impacts related to the following common indicators for the LIFE Clean Energy Transition sub-programme: Primary energy savings triggered by the project in GWh/year, final energy savings triggered by the project in GWh/year, renewable energy generation triggered by the project (in GWh/year), reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (in tCO2-eq/year), and investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro).

Admissibility conditions include proposal page limits and layout as described in the application form. Eligible countries are described in section 6 of the call document. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion are described in section 7 of the call document. Submission and evaluation processes are described in section 8, and award criteria, scoring, and thresholds are described in section 9. The indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement is described in section 4, and the legal and financial set-up of the grants is described in section 10.

Relevant documents include the call document, application form templates, model grant agreements, the LIFE Multiannual Work Programme 2025-2027, LIFE Regulation 2021/783, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, and rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment.

This funding opportunity is designed to combat energy poverty by supporting policy development, coordination among stakeholders, and the renovation of residential buildings occupied by energy-poor households. It seeks to promote a just and inclusive energy transition in line with the European Green Deal and the Fit for 55 package. Applicants must form a consortium of at least three entities from three eligible countries and should focus on either policy support or building renovation, demonstrating a clear plan for achieving measurable impacts and contributing to the EU's broader climate and energy goals. The call encourages innovative approaches and the involvement of relevant stakeholders to ensure long-term, sustainable solutions for alleviating energy poverty in Europe.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types include national, regional, and/or local authorities, societal intermediaries, consumer or social organizations, housing sector representatives, and healthcare providers. Homeowners or tenant associations and housing organizations are specifically mentioned as important participants. The call specifies that proposals must be submitted by at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically a LIFE Project Grant (LIFE-PJG) under the LIFE Clean Energy Transition (LIFE-2025-CET) call. The funding rate is 95% through Other Action Grants (OAGs).

Consortium Requirement: A consortium of multiple applicants is required. Proposals must be submitted by at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility is for applicants from different eligible countries, with a minimum of 3 applicants from 3 different eligible countries required for each proposal. The specific eligible countries are detailed in section 6 of the call document.

Target Sector: The target sectors are energy, social policy, health, and housing, with a focus on alleviating household energy poverty in Europe. The program targets building renovation, energy efficiency, renewable energy, policy and coordination support, and the establishment of coordination structures and energy poverty observatories.

Mentioned Countries: The opportunity does not explicitly mention specific countries, but it refers to Member States in the context of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). The geographic scope is therefore primarily focused on the EU member states and other countries eligible to participate in the LIFE Programme.

Project Stage: The project stage is variable, encompassing policy development, coordination structure establishment, capacity building, and implementation of building renovation measures. It supports both the development of strategies and the implementation of concrete actions.

Funding Amount: The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 1.75 million would allow the specific objectives to be addressed appropriately. However, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. The total budget allocated to the LIFE-2025-CET-ENERPOV topic is EUR 6,000,000. Other related topics under the same call have varying budgets, ranging from EUR 4,000,000 to EUR 15,000,000.

Application Type: The application type is a single-stage open call. The submission session is available from April 24, 2025, and the deadline for submission is September 23, 2025, at 17:00:00 Brussels time.

Nature of Support: The beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a grant to support their projects. The support also includes non-monetary services such as capacity-building activities, policy support, and access to tools and resources from existing initiatives like the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub.

Application Stages: The application process is a single-stage process.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned in the provided text.

Co-funding Requirement: Co-funding is not explicitly mentioned as a requirement. The funding rate is 95%, which suggests that co-funding is not mandatory but may be possible.

Summary:

This opportunity is a call for proposals under the LIFE Clean Energy Transition program, specifically targeting the alleviation of household energy poverty in Europe. The call, LIFE-2025-CET-ENERPOV, aims to fund projects that contribute to reducing energy poverty by supporting policy development, establishing coordination structures, and implementing building renovation measures. The call encourages proposals that focus on alleviating summer energy poverty and/or actions focusing on geographic areas with less developed energy poverty alleviation measures and frameworks.

The call is structured around two main scopes: Scope A focuses on policy and coordination support to public authorities and stakeholders, aiming to set up long-term, cross-sectoral coordination structures and provide tailored policy support for implementing the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). Scope B focuses on supporting the energy renovation of residential multi-apartment buildings with energy-poor inhabitants, addressing governance, regulatory, and financial barriers.

Eligible applicants include national, regional, and local authorities, societal intermediaries, consumer organizations, housing sector representatives, and healthcare providers. A consortium of at least 3 applicants from 3 different eligible countries is required. The funding rate is 95%, and the Commission suggests that proposals request up to EUR 1.75 million, although other amounts can be considered.

The application process is a single-stage open call with a deadline of September 23, 2025. The program seeks projects that can demonstrate concrete results, contribute to topic-specific impacts, and quantify their results using specified indicators. The overall goal is to promote a socially just and inclusive energy transition, improve living conditions for energy-poor households, and contribute to the objectives of the European Green Deal.