Proposals are expected to focus on one of the 3 scopes established below. The scope addressed should be specified in the proposal’s introduction. In case a proposal addresses elements of more than one scope, the added-value of a cross-cutting approach should be adequately explained.

Scope A: Support for the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive:
Actions are expected to address core provisions and aspects of the Energy Efficiency Directive, in particular those that are reinforced or newly introduced with the recast, notably:

• the Energy Efficiency First Principle, supporting Member States in the operational implementation of the provisions and helping develop related assessment methodologies, tools and benchmarks, including for the application of the principle in planning and investment decisions in energy networks, as well as in planning and investment decisions at regional and local level or in projects below the thresholds as set out in the Energy Efficiency Directive.
• the Energy Efficiency targets, including new methods to collect and integrate different sources of data, to forecast trends and to evaluate policies and measures.
• the role of the public sector in delivering the specific targets established for the public sector, e.g. by supporting Member States in developing strategies, mapping public buildings and gathering and calculating data from public bodies.
• the Energy Savings Obligations and Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes, supporting Member States in the design and implementation of the schemes and in the calculation of contributions and evaluation of measures.
• Contractual Rights of consumers in the area of heating and cooling, supporting Member States and regulatory bodies in putting in place provisions and standards matching the requirements and information needs of consumers and complementing the implementation of the respective articles.
• Energy Services, supporting Member States in putting in place standard contracts and quality control schemes, moreover platforms/databases that facilitate access to qualified and certified energy services providers.
• Comprehensive Assessments for Heating and Cooling, supporting Member States in collecting the necessary data and carrying out the assessment of national heating and cooling potentials as well as for putting in place policies to ensure that, in line with Article 25 of the Energy Efficiency Directive, potentials identified are being realised.

Scope B: Support for the implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive:
Actions B are expected to address core provisions and aspects of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED).

Specifically, proposals should support public authorities in charge of the transposition and implementation of the Directive by addressing only one of the areas below:

1. Provisions related to the permit-granting process. Proposals should support the joint development of new tools, sharing of best practices, and training programmes for speeding up and streamlining permitting procedures through an EU community of practitioners in RES permitting consisting of the contact points established under Art. 16 of the RED and other permit-granting authorities, including at regional and local level.
2. Provisions related to the development of plans designating renewables acceleration areas for one or more broad types of renewable energy sources, e.g. a) wind; b) solar thermal; c) solar photovoltaic; d) geothermal energy; e) ambient energy; f) tide, wave and other ocean energy; g) biogas, including effective environmental impact mitigation measures.
3. Provisions related to the development of enabling frameworks to promote and facilitate the development of renewables self-consumption, including for jointly acting renewables self-consumers. Proposals should support and target national or regional authorities in the update, monitoring and /or evaluation of the implementation of national/regional/local frameworks implementing the above provisions. In particular, proposals should address the practical implementation of energy sharing by renewable self-consumers in the same building or multi-apartment block or within a wider geographical location (without necessarily the need to form an energy community) and measures to promote it in cooperation with all relevant actors.

Scope C: Support for the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive:
Actions are expected to address core provisions and aspects of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), in particular those that are subject to major changes introduced under the Recast of the EPBD.

Actions should address in particular aspects in one of the three main focus areas as established below, even if not limited to these:

1. Actions to enhance the effectiveness and coherence of instruments designed to improve the energy performance of buildings through a higher number of and deeper renovations, notably:

• as regards Minimum Energy Performance Standards, support for developing the standards at Member State level and for developing the necessary monitoring tools; support for developing an enabling framework including technical assistance and financial measures that accompanies the introduction of Minimum Energy Performance Standards as part of the national Building Renovation Plans.
• as regards Minimum Energy Performance Requirements and towards Zero-Emission Buildings, support for the up-dating of calculations and cost-optimality methodologies including up-dating of the software.

2. Actions to support the transition to a climate-neutral building stock, notably:

• as regards Zero Emission Buildings (ZEB), support for Member States to define benchmarks and refine and implement the concept against the national context, for instance by identifying criteria, thresholds and other parameters and framework conditions relevant for the definition and implementation of ZEB-standards at national level for new and existing buildings.
• as regards the Global Warming Potential of buildings, support for the setting up and implementation of the life-cycle Global Warming Potential (GWP) calculations with a view to setting up a European framework for whole life carbon reduction, notably by building on existing initiatives at national level and seeking to replicate most effective practices, and by helping integrate the calculations in the national policy frameworks and fostering the cross-policy exchanges.

3. Actions to support an optimal roll-out of buildings data and information tools, notably:

• as regards information tools, support for the re-scaling of EPCs including for the identification of the worst-performing buildings; refining and up-dating the methodologies to calculate the energy performance classes and to provide other mandatory and voluntary indicators to be included in EPCs; integration and methodological coordination of EPCs with the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) and with other disclosure and planning tools like Building Renovation passports.
• as regards buildings data, improvement of the methodologies to collect, aggregate and report data; support for national authorities for questions of data governance; support for the design and definition of functionalities for national databases as established in the proposal for a revision of the EPBD, including methodologies to collect and integrate data from different sources, such as EPCs, inspections, building renovation passports, SRI and calculated or metered energy consumption; moreover, support to national authorities in ensuring an effective transfer of the information from the national database to the EU Building Stock Observatory (BSO); support to national authorities for ensuring consistency between buildings data from the EU BSO and official data at national level.

For all Scopes, the Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to €1.75 million would allow the specific objectives to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.