Support programmes
With our financial resources we support individual researchers and research teams with personal fellowships and project funding.
All about support programmes
Medium-scale research infrastructure
Medium scale research infrastructure is defined as research infrastructure with a total subsidy cost excl. co-funding of at least EUR 150,000 and at most EUR 1,000,000 (including VAT).
Status
Open
18/09/2025
Objective
Research infrastructure comprises all facilities and sources that promote the performance of cross-border and strategic basic research across all scientific disciplines. Besides scientific infrastructure, this includes collections, natural habitats, corpora and databases (including digital opening up) and connection to data platforms. They may be single-sited, distributed, or virtual.
Medium scale research infrastructure is defined as research infrastructure with a total financing cost (excl. co-funding) ranging from €150,000 to €1,000,000 (including the non-recoverable part of VAT).
New:
Important dates
- March 17, 2025: call open
- June 30, 2025: deadline pre-registration (only information on the title of the application (‘tab general’, consortium partners, keywords, disciplines, suggestions for referees and forbidden referees))
- September 11, 2025: internal deadline (deadline transfer of the proposal in preparation from supervisor to the ‘institution of the supervisor’ (= main applicant))
- September 18, 2025 at 5 PM: deadline submission final project proposal
- End of April 2026: announcement of results
Information session
In the context of the launch of this call, an information session will be organised on 24 April 2025 to further inform interested parties about this, including examples of projects and a demonstration of the application platform.
Features
- Period: 4 years, renewable with maximum two years
- Acceptable costs:
- Equipment: costs for research investments, i.e. the costs of purchasing and connecting the actual research infrastructure or purchasing the components for the construction of the planned research infrastructure, including the non-refundable portion of VAT. This also includes the upgrading, i.e. the substantial improvement of existing research infrastructure;
- Personnel costs for the development and construction of the research infrastructure. This also includes the personnel costs for upgrading existing research infrastructure and the costs for the operational or maintenance personnel once the infrastructure is up and running;
- Operational costs consisting of maintenance costs throughout the depreciation period, being the costs arising out of maintenance contracts or upgrades of the research infrastructure, equipment repair costs, travel costs to and from abroad and the costs for a CO2 contribution linked to research-related air travel, to the extent that these costs are in line with the development, construction, upgrading, operation and/or maintenance of the research infrastructure.
- Funding percentage: 100%
Profile and conditions
- Eligible organisations: research groups from Flemish universities. The universities determine who is eligible to serve as a supervisor-spokesperson or co-supervisor. Two or more departments or research groups within the same institution that jointly submit an application are considered one applicant.
- An application is submitted under the direction of a supervisor, possibly in collaboration with one or more co-supervisors.
- The application must clearly indicate whether there is cooperation
- With (an)other university(ies) i.e. two or more applicants associated with institutions that belong to different universities, submit the application;
- With (an)other university(ies) and/or with third parties.
- If a proposal is submitted by research groups from several universities, the applicants will designate one supervisor who will act as spokesperson for the application.
- Each research group participating in the application other than that to which the supervisor-spokesperson belongs, shall appoint at least one co-supervisor. They must make a real, financially assessable contribution to the application through their research group or institution, otherwise they will be added as users. A maximum of 50 percent of any co-financing may consist of the co-supervisors' staff costs.
- Co-supervisors may serve as co-supervisors for multiple applications at the same time.
What is the application procedure?
- Each university organises a university-wide call for investment initiatives for medium-scale research infrastructure and establishes an internal selection procedure.
- As supervisor of the infrastructure, you submit a pre-registration via the FWO E-portal in which you give a short description of the application to be submitted. The deadline is 30 June 2025. Via the FWO E-portal you transfer the proposal in preparation to your institution (= the main applicant of the proposal). Only information on the title of the application (‘tab general’, consortium partners, keywords, disciplines, suggestions for referees and forbidden referees) should be entered in the application form. Possible collaboration opportunities will be explored thanks to the pre-registration. Shortly after the pre-registration deadline, the proposal in preparation is reopened to the supervisor for further finalisation.
- As supervisor of the infrastructure, you prepare the proposal via the FWO E-portal and transfer the proposal in preparation to your institution (= the main applicant of the proposal). The internal deadline is September 11, 2025. Please contact the research coordination office of your research institution for practicalities.
- Your institution submits the final proposal to the FWO by September 18, 2025 at 5 PM. Application dossiers must clearly indicate whether
- There is cooperation with (an)other university(ies) or with third parties;
- Such cooperation with (an)other university(ies) or with third parties will be developed further.
- In accordance with the regulation laid down in its internal regulations, the university board examines the final versions of the submitted application files. Among other things, it examines whether any inter-university cooperation is possible, in whatever form.
- Between September 22, 2025 and October 27, 2025, bilateral and multilateral consultations between the universities will take place to maximise cooperation. The substantive responsibility for this lies with the university boards. Applications in which it is indicated that 100% of the equipment is used are included in the consultation, in order to obtain a complete overview of the applications and not to exclude a priori potential but not yet detected synergies between applications.
- The internal Evaluation Commission of each university evaluates the applications, ranking them according to the selection criteria on an indicative list. This list is submitted to the FWO by 27 March, 2026 at the latest. The universities shall provide a brief justification of the decision on all applications submitted (including those not nominated for funding that were submitted).
The consultation of the cooperation possibilities must be thoroughly explained in the justification of the proposals submitted. Dossiers involving inter-university cooperation (funding) are included on the list of each of the universities concerned.
The universities may consult if it appears that partners have been omitted for inter-university applications. Where appropriate, the further feasibility of the relevant submitted application will be evaluated with the supervisor and agreed upon.
The FWO administration conducts a meta-evaluation of the assessment carried out by the universities. This relies on:- The assessment per university of the indicative lists taking into account the selection criteria and available budgets;
- An examination of the methodology followed by the universities with a view to promoting inter-university cooperation and collaboration with third parties.
- The FWO Board of Trustees makes a final decision at its April 2026 session on the provision of support within the available funds per university for medium-scale research infrastructures.
Regulations and downloads
Contact
General questions on the call for medium-scale research infrastructure or specific questions related to submitting an application for this call, should be addressed to the contact person in each university or to infrastructuur@fwo.be.
In case of technical difficulties with the E-portal, please contact fwohelpdesk@fwo.be.
Contact details of the various universities are listed below:
KU Leuven
Veerle Bruggeman
Hoofd Nationale Fondsen - Onderzoekscoördinatie KU Leuven
Tel: +32 (0)16 320949
E-mail: veerle.bruggeman@doc.kuleuven.be
https://research.kuleuven.be/en/contact/team#nf en https://research.kuleuven.be/gedocumenteerd/nl
Universiteit Gent
Fien Elderweirdt
Functiedomein Onderzoek UGent
Tel: +32 (0)9 264 98 44
E-mail: vlaams-federaal@ugent.be
https://www.ugent.be/nl/onderzoek/financiering/vlaams/fwo/infrastructuur/middelzware.htm
Universiteit Antwerpen
Frederik Verleysen
Grants Office UAntwerpen
Tel: +32 (0)3 265 31 05
E-mail:Frederik.verleysen@uantwerpen.be
https://www.uantwerpen.be/nl/onderzoek/beleid/financiering-onderzoek/vlaamse-financiering/fwo/
Universiteit Hasselt
Ilse Das
Stafmedewerker onderzoeksfinanciering
Tel: +32 (0)11 26 80 98
E-mail: ilse.das@uhasselt.be
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Secretariaat Research
Eva Leemans
Elsie Premereur
Tel: +32 (0)2 629 21 08
E-mail: rd.secretariaat@vub.be - eva.leemans@vub.be -elsie.premereur@vub.be
https://vub.sharepoint.com/sites/PUB_Research_infrastructure