FRS-FNRS Projects & Credits (PDR / CDR / MIS / EQP)

FRS-FNRS Projects & Credits (PDR / CDR / MIS / EQP)

Funds projects and career development grants for Belgian university researchers across disciplines.

FRS-FNRS conducts a unified annual project and credit call each spring covering four instruments for research funding at French-speaking Belgian universities. The 2026 call window runs from 19 May to 7 July 2026. The PDR (Research Project) funds staff, operating, and equipment costs over two or four years; single-promoter or multi-university teams are both eligible, and PDR projects can be extended through the Weave Initiative, which enables partnerships with researchers funded by the German DFG, Flemish FWO, Luxembourg FNR, or Swiss SNF under a lead-agency coordination model. The CDR (Research Credit) is a two-year instrument covering operating costs and equipment only — staff costs are explicitly excluded — with the option to spread expenditures over up to four years; it is typically used for project initiation or continuation of ongoing fundamental research.

The MIS (Incentive Grant for Scientific Research) is a three-year full-cost instrument targeting early-career researchers who are establishing an independent research direction or building their first research unit, covering staff, operating, and equipment. The EQP (Equipment Grant) funds the acquisition of research equipment and is part of the same call window. Award ceilings for all four instruments are defined in the Regulations and Guides PDFs published on the FRS-FNRS e-space portal; these amounts are not published on the public-facing web pages. No thematic restriction applies — all fundamental research disciplines at French-speaking Belgian public universities are eligible under PDR, CDR, and MIS.

The principal investigator must hold a position at one of the five French-speaking Belgian public universities: ULB, UCLouvain, ULiège, UMons, or UNamur. For-profit organisations, non-university research institutes, and individual applicants are not eligible. Applications are submitted through the e-space portal at e-space.frs-fnrs.be before 7 July 2026. Teams considering a PDR with international ambitions should identify Weave-eligible partners early, as the lead-agency coordination mechanism requires aligned submissions to partner funding agencies on the same timeline.