BUILD UP Skills - Upskilling and reskilling interventions for building decarbonisation

Overview

Objectives

The BUILD UP Skills initiative is supporting the upskilling of building professionals across Europe, to deliver building renovations offering high energy performance as well as new nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (nZEBs). This effort needs to be sustained through the rollout of ambitious training and qualification interventions aligned with the EU Green Deal, the EU’s 2030 climate objectives as well as the EU’s long-term strategy of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. In particular, the objectives are:

• To increase the number of skilled building professionals at all levels of the building design, operation and maintenance value chain.
• To create a thriving community of practitioners actively involved in upskilling activities for building professionals, which will support the large-scale roll-out of successful approaches across Europe.

The topic supports and goes beyond the Large-Scale Partnership for the construction ecosystem under the Pact for Skills, which plans to upskill and reskill overall at least 25% of the workforce of the construction industry in the next 5 years, to reach the target of 3 million workers, as well as the Renewable Energy skills Large-Scale partnership.

Activities/actions supported

Proposals should address only one of the two scopes below. The scope addressed should be clearly specified in the proposal's introduction.

• Scope A - Upskilling and reskilling interventions enabling a decarbonised building stock and energy system integration: Proposals should develop, test, validate and prepare the deployment of new and/or the upgrade of existing training and qualification schemes for all types of professionals involved in the building value chain ('blue collars' and/or 'white collars' professionals), as well as for professionals active in other sectors than construction and buildings renovation. The main focus of proposals should be on Continuing Vocational Education and Training (or professional training) of professionals, i.e. after they have entered working life.
• Scope B - BUILD UP Skills community of practice: Proposals under Scope B are expected to develop an EU community of practitioners with proven experience in the development and promotion of sustainable energy skills for building professionals in EU Member States and LIFE associated countries. The community of practice should build bridges both within the group of BUILD UP Skills projects (past, ongoing and new ones starting during the project), as well as with other related projects and initiatives.

Anticipated outcomes

Proposals submitted under Scope A should demonstrate how they will contribute to an increased uptake of sustainable energy skills along the building value chain, through the development of training and qualification schemes tailored to the specificities of the national markets targeted and adding value to existing schemes.

Proposals submitted under scope B should result in the establishment of a European community of practice gathering relevant stakeholders, actively involved in ongoing implementation of upskilling activities for building professionals.

Institution providing the funding

European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA)

Size of funding

EUR 6.500.000

Conditions

Overview of eligibility criteria

To be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be legal entities (public or private bodies) established in one of the eligible countries (i.e. EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)), or EEA countries and countries associated to LIFE Programme)

Proposals must be submitted by at least one applicant from an eligible country (scope A) or a minimum of 3 applicants from 3 elibigle countries (scope B). More information about eligibility can be found in the call document.

Overview of award criteria

Project proposals will be assessed taking into account the following 4 criteria, for a maximum of 90 points:

• Relevance (maximum 20 points)
• Quality (maximum 20 points) - Resources (maximum 20 points)
• Impact (maximum 20 points)

The overall threshold is 55 points.

Procedures

Application procedures

All proposals must be submitted directly online via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System. More informaiton can be found on page 80 of the funding call.

Application support available

Non-IT related questions should be sent no later than 7 working days prior to the submission deadline to the following email address: CINEA-LIFE-CETec [dot] europa [dot] eu (CINEA-LIFE-CET[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

Useful links

Link to funding opportunity

Link to the programme for more info