LIFE Awards 2025

As part of EU Green Week, the LIFE Awards 2025 highlighted nine outstanding projects completed over the past year. Established by the European Commission in 2006, the awards recognised excellence in nature conservation, environmental sustainability, and climate resilience.

The nine finalists represented some of the most creative and impactful initiatives supporting a greener Europe. The winners were: 

Nature Protection & Biodiversity

• LIFE Lynx: which brought together conservationists, hunters and local communities to successfully reverse the decline of the Alpine Lynx in the Dinaric Alps.

Circular Economy & Quality of Life

• LIFEPOPWAT: which piloted a new nature-based technology to remove hazardous man-made chemicals from contaminated water in Czechia and Poland.

Climate Action

• LIFE DESERT-ADAPT: a project tackling desertification by enhancing soil quality, increasing water retention capacity, and building ecosystem resilience in Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

In addition, two special awards were presented during the ceremony:

The Citizens’ Prize – awarded to a LIFE project that received the strongest public support in an online vote. The winner was one of the nine LIFE Awards 2025 finalists. This year, the prize went to LIFE Lynx.

The Rising Star Recognition – introduced to spotlight projects that supported the EU’s key policy priorities. In 2025, this award recognised a LIFE project that made a remarkable contribution to the circular economy. This recognition went to LIFE RE-ZIP, a Danish project which aims to replace thousands of tonnes of commercial packaging waste with more environmentally friendly reusable eCommerce packaging.