Green Deal Funding Alert - October 2026

This is the latest edition of the Green Deal Funding Alert, a monthly newsletter that keeps you informed about funding opportunities and initiatives supporting sustainable development and the transition to climate neutrality. This edition focuses on advisory programmes on circular economy transition in cities and funding calls for environmental restoration and biodiversity.

1. Advancing the circular city transition - C3 free advisory programmes:

Is your city or region facing challenges in turning circular economy ambitions into concrete strategies, projects and action?

Led by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and co-funded by the European Commission as part of the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI), C3 offers EU cities and regions two free advisory programmes:

• The Circular City Advisory programme: Supports cities at all stages of the circular transition through a series of four workshops.
• The Circular Project Advisory programme: Offers tailored advisory support for public promoters to develop relatively large and mature projects (> €20 million).

Deadline: 13 November 2026.

Participation in these programmes is free of charge for municipalities. 

Find more information on the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform website. 

2. Open call: Local action for restoration of the Danube River basin and the Black Sea region

Is your community seeking support or capacity building to advance practical solutions for the sustainable restoration of the Danube River orthe Black Sea region? Does your region have a proposal that contributes to the EU Mission toRestore our Ocean and Waters by 2030? 

SoS2LearnDBS aims to:

• Use community participation in restoration activities to develop scalable and replicable environmental restoration models.
• Fund consortia (2-4 independent legal entities, e.g. local or regional authorities, municipalities or other regional administrations) with a Transition Agenda (eligible for up to €100 000). 

For further information on the initiative and applying, visit the EU Funding & Tenders Portal web page on the open call.

Deadline: 11 December 2026 (17:00 CET).

3. Biodiversity calls under Horizon Europe:

Looking for support on projects related to biodiversity or ecosystem services? 

In 2026-2027 Horizon Europe is opening calls on several topics, with projects ranging from ecosystem restoration and resilient food production systems to PFAS effects on biodiversity.

Horizon Europe NATURE calls: 

• Topics: Biodiversity monitoring, nature restoration implementation, wildlife trafficking and more.
  • Funding: €4-10 million per project. 
  • Deadline: 14 January 2027.
  • Find more information on these grants on the web page for Horizon Europe Nature calls.
• Topic: Strengthening the Global Ocean Observing System.
  • Funding: €50 million per project.
  • Deadline: 16 February 2027.
  • Find more information on this grant on the web page for Horizon Europe Nature calls.

Horizon Europe Cluster 6 calls:

• Topics: Technical innovations of ecosystem protection, nature positive economy, resilient food production systems and more.
  • Funding: €5-8 million per project.
  • Calls open on 20 April 2027.
  • Deadline: 22 September 2027.
  • Find more information on these grants on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for Horizon Europe Cluster 6.

4. Water4All 2026 Call for Sustainable Water Management

Does your city or region have an innovative proposal addressing key challenges in sustainable water management?

With 32 funding organisations from 29 countries, this call invites proposals that contribute to the in four topics:

• Integrated Monitoring and Assessment for Sustainable Water Management.
• Nature-Based Approaches for Resilient Water Management at hydrological and hydrogeological system scale.
• Smart, secure and adaptive water infrastructures.
• Resilient Water Systems through Systemic Change, Policy Coherence and Inclusive governance.

The call has an indicative budget of €34 million.

Deadline: 10 November 2026 at 15:00 CET (for pre-proposals).

Deadline: 6 April 2027 (for full proposals).

To learn more about applying, conditions and the timeline, see the Water4All 2026 Joint Transnational Call webpage.

Any questions? 

Please contact our Green Deal team at greendeal@cor.europa.eu. They will be happy to help.

If you missed the last edition of the Funding Alert, you can catch up here. 

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