Best projects and LIFE Awards

Finalists

Every year, the European Commission assess all completed LIFE projects based on various criteria:

contribution to immediate and long-term environmental, economic and social improvements
degree of innovation and transferability
relevance to policy
cost-effectiveness.

The most successful LIFE projects subsequently become finalists, and compete in the LIFE Awards.

The LIFE Awards ceremony

The LIFE Awards recognise the most innovative, inspirational and effective LIFE projects in three categories: nature protection, circular economy and quality of life, and climate action. The winners are selected by an expert jury and announced on the day of the ceremony, which takes place during the EU Green Week – Europe’s biggest environmental event.

LIFE Awards 2025

The LIFE Awards ceremony took place on 3 June 2025 in the context of the Green Week. 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.
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.