Water4All - cofund partnership

FWO participation and funding under this call are open to both the fundamental research (FO) and Strategic Basic Research (SBO) funding channels, meaning that projects may be funded through either FWO channel. It should be strongly emphasised that the choice of funding channel depends on the type of research project to be carried out (i.e. fundamental/exploratory in nature versus strongly focused on future economic and/or societal valorisation potential). Failure to comply with the specific requirements of the selected funding channel may result in the proposal being declared ineligible.

Please note that this is assessed on an individual basis: European and/or international partners within the same consortium may freely choose their type of research. From FWO’s perspective, only the “nature” of the subproject carried out by the Flemish partner applying for FWO funding is relevant.

For the fundamental research funding channel, the relevant regulations apply. For the SBO funding channel, the SBO regulations must be taken into account. The latter concerns projects with a primary economic and/or societal objective, for which valorisation is an essential and mandatory component.

Research proposals must be submitted to the Water4All Call Secretariat via the online submission tool, in accordance with the applicable procedures and eligibility criteria set out in the call documents. A partnering tool is also available to help identify relevant consortium partners. Other information documents are available on the Water4All call webpage.

Where several Flemish institutions within the same consortium apply for FWO funding, only one joint form containing all information on the Flemish parties concerned must be submitted, in line with the regular project procedure. This must always be done by the PI or supervisor(-spokesperson) via their personal e-portal account. 

The submission deadline is the same as the call deadline for pre-proposals. Applicants are strongly advised to contact the FWO administration no later than one week before submission so that eligibility can be verified.

Within international consortia, FWO funds at least two Flemish subprojects. For each Flemish subproject, up to EUR 350,000, including overhead, may be requested for a maximum duration of 36 months, regardless of the number of partners applying for FWO funding. FWO’s budgetary rules are also explained in the National/Regional Regulations document. 

In addition to national/regional funding, the cofunded partnerships under the Horizon Europe Framework Programme provide co-funding from the European Commission. At the funding decision stage, based on the final ranking following international peer review, this may result in additional support and enable further projects to be funded, including projects involving Flanders.

Key points and deviations from the regular FWO participation framework to take into account:

• Participation in European cofunded partnerships does not interfere with “regular” participation in FWO projects and is therefore not counted towards the maximum number of projects that may be applied for or ongoing. An important qualification is that applicants may participate in a maximum of two different projects/consortia per call, provided that these address different topics. In addition, in this Water4All context, participation in only one project in total is permitted when taking on the role of Coordinator.

• Different overhead arrangements apply to the fundamental research and SBO funding channels, as explained in the National/Regional Regulations document.

• SBO projects aimed at developing a spin-off are not eligible in this context. This possible pathway may therefore not be described in the FWO pre-registration.

• A user committee or advisory committee is not mandatory for an SBO project in this context.

• Projects have a maximum duration of 36 months and must be budgeted accordingly. Automatic extensions are not permitted under this participation framework. Consequently, Article 28 of the FWO Research Projects regulations and Article 14 of the SBO Projects regulations are explicitly excluded.

• Researchers must hold an eligible appointment covering the full duration of the project (e.g. a ZAP appointment at universities; a doctoral degree is mandatory). This applies to both FO and SBO projects. More specifically, the emeritus arrangement (Article 10, §7) does not apply in this context. In practice, this means, among other things, that supervisors(-spokespersons) who obtain emeritus status during the project period are not eligible.

• Research teams applying for FWO funding may, if they wish, involve stakeholders (e.g. city/municipal authorities, public and/or private organisations focusing on water, interest groups, etc.) in a research project, including for non-routine tasks. However, the State aid rules must be taken into account. Please contact FWO for further information.

Researchers are strongly advised to contact FWO before submission regarding the eligibility criteria. This is to avoid the ineligibility of the individual Flemish researcher(s), and of the consortium as a whole.