The EU Eco-Innovation Action Plan (EcoAP)

The Eco-Innovation Action Plan (EcoAP) is a set of initiatives to drive the development and uptake of innovations that benefit the environment, create growth and jobs, and relieve pressure on increasingly scarce and expensive resources.

EcoAP is implemented at EU and Member States level. It targets the drivers of and barriers to eco-innovation that fall outside the scope of more general policies such as the Europe 2020 strategy for growth and jobs. It replaces the EU’s 2004 Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP), and with it the notion that eco-innovation is only about new technologies.

>> http://ec.europa.eu/environment/etap/index.htm

LIFE Environment Policy & Governance

The LIFE + Programme supports best practice approaches to the implementation of European environmental policy. LIFE+ runs from 2007-2013 and has a budget of €2.143 billion. The LIFE+ Environment Policy & Governance strand of the Programme has a strong track record in complementing CIP Eco-innovation and ETAP goals. LIFE remains a popular source of EU co-finance for private, public and voluntary sector organisations involved in developing new eco solutions that address environmental challenges. Innovation is a core driving principle for the LIFE Programme, which provides added-value at EU level and supports initiatives that bring broadscale benefits.

LIFE's grant funding is available for project activity involving a wide spectrum of technologies, methods and instruments that promote environmental sustainability. The Programme's portfolio in these areas covers a diverse mix of different topics including for example, air quality, agriculture, industry, transport, energy, forests, urban planning, waste control, water conservation; pollution measures, soil protection and many more Application guidelines for LIFE are published annually by the European Commission and these are supported by information workshops in each Member State for potential LIFE+ applicants.

>> http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/

CIP Eco-innovation

Through the Eco-innovation funding scheme, the EU wants to support innovative products, services and processes that can make a better use of our natural resources and reduce Europe's ecological footprint. Bridging the gap between research and the market, CIP Eco-innovation contributes to the implementation of the Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP).There is nearly €200 million available to fund Ecoinnovation projects between 2008 and 2013. The projects funded through the Eco-innovation initiative have to:

• address one of the following four sectors: materials and process recycling, buildings, the food and drink sector, greening business including green procurement).
• have an innovative character
• show clear and substantial benefits in support of Europe's environmental policy objectives while taking economic concerns into account
• provide significant replication, wider application and broader marketability; demonstrate a European added value and an international project dimension
• be well thought-through from a technical and project management perspective
• be cost-effective

>> http://ec.europa.eu/cip/