Background Freshwater ecosystems provide a vital service for people, economies and nature. Throughout Europe they are under pressure due to pollution, morphological change, increasing water consumption, climate change and other factors. The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) was introduced in 2000 to impose firm timetables for reversing the long-term decline in Europe’s freshwater environment. The directive’s main objective is the achievement of “good ecological status” (GES) in all European water bodies by 2015. However, the implementation of the WFD across Europe has been inadequate, according to an EC assessment of River Basin Management Planning (RBMP) in 2012, which contained recommendations for a second cycle of RBMP aimed at achieving WFD goals. The most important challenges to be overcome for effective WFD delivery were listed as: low ambition to implement the framework directive with no new policies; existing mechanisms focusing only on direct polluters and not supply-chain stakeholders or indirect polluters; lack of transparency in decision-making; limited knowledge exchange across the EU; and ineffective implementation of programmes of measures. Objectives The long-term goal of the WaterLIFE project is to contribute to the delivery of the WFD across the EU, by helping to restore rivers to good ecological status. Its aim is to move all surface water bodies within demonstration catchments to GES faster than predicted by the 2009 RBMP. The project is designed to offer timely support to governments in the development of the second cycle of the RBMP, and to demonstrate that there are civil society and private sector-led mechanisms that can work if supported by an adequate policy framework. WWF’s ambition is that the 2015 RBMP contains measures sufficient to get 50% of rivers to GES under the WFD by 2021. The project objectives are: To create policy-enabling conditions, so that policy, guidance and legislation in the UK, and other EU countries, supports an accelerated and collaborative delivery of the WFD; To promote water stewardship innovation, through a wider business commitment; To demonstrate civil society governance, with local and regional civil society groups empowered in WFD advocacy and engaged in RBMP development; and To improve European knowledge exchange, with demonstrated private sector and civil society methodologies of WFD implementation, and associated policy-enabling conditions, that are transferable and widely applicable across the EU. Expected results: Measurable improvements towards GES demonstrated in five river catchments across the UK; UK government implements enabling conditions to accelerate achievement of WFD objectives; At least five multinational food and drink businesses engaged on WFD policy issues across the EU and committed to pursuing water stewardship approaches in two catchments; At least 500 civil society groups engaged in RBMP development across Europe; and WaterLIFE knowledge exchange participants to have received training on capacity building, and to have contributed methodologies that are transferable across the EU.