European Partnership for Brain Health

Both the national/regional FWO Fundamental Research (FO) and Strategic Basic Research (SBO) funding channels are integrated into this multilateral call. The nature and scope of the proposed research project will determine the appropriate funding channel for the research activities carried out in Flanders (e.g. research that is more fundamental in nature versus research with strong valorisation potential). Non-compliance with the specific requirements of a given funding channel may result in ineligibility.

Please note that this requirement applies only to FWO-funded partners. European and/or international partners within the project consortium are free to choose the type of research they conduct, in accordance with their own national regulations.

For projects submitted under the Fundamental Research (FO) funding channel, the relevant FO regulations apply. Projects submitted under the SBO channel must comply with the SBO regulations, which require a primarily economic and/or societal finality, with valorisation as a key and mandatory component.

Research proposals are submitted to the BrainHealth call secretariats using the designated pre-proposal template and the respective submission platform for each call. Proposals are submitted by consortia of European and international researchers, in accordance with the applicable procedures and eligibility criteria as set out in the above-mentioned call documents.

In case the consortium includes more than one partner requesting funding from FWO, a single online form should be submitted by the promoter-spokesperson containing all relevant information from the different partners from Flanders.

The deadline for submitting the administrative application to the FWO coincides with the deadline for the joint transnational call (pre-proposal stage). To ensure the eligibility of the proposal, it is recommended to contact the FWO administration at least one week in advance.

Within the framework of an international consortium, the FWO supports at least two Flemish projects per call, with a maximum eligible amount of EUR 350,000 (including overhead) per project for a duration of 36 months. The FWO budgetary rules are also explained in the National Annexes document (under “downloads”) for each call.

Some key points and deviations from the ‘regular’ FWO participatory framework to consider:

• Participation in European co-fund partnerships does not affect the regular/national FWO project submission framework and is therefore not counted towards the maximum number of applications a researcher can submit. However, researchers may participate in a maximum of two different international consortia per call, provided that the consortia concern different topics.
• Overhead arrangements differ depending on whether the project is funded under the Fundamental Research (FO) or Strategic Basic Research (SBO) channel. Details are provided in the ‘National Annexes’ documents.
• SBO projects aimed at developing a spin-off are not eligible in this context. As such, this option should not be mentioned in the FWO pre-registration document.
• Project duration is limited to 36 months, and budgets should be planned accordingly. Automatic extensions or no-cost prolongations are not permitted. Consequently, Article 28 of the FWO Research Project Regulations and Article 14 of the SBO Project Regulations are explicitly excluded.
• Eligibility of principal investigators (PIs): for each participating institution, the PI must hold an appointment that fully covers the duration of the research project. Regarding FO projects, the ‘emeritus’ regulation (Article 10, §7) does not apply in this context.
• The FWO funds pre-clinical research.

Researchers are strongly advised to contact the FWO prior to submission to verify eligibility criteria, in order to avoid the ineligibility of either individual researchers or the project consortium as a whole.