Junior and Senior Research Project

Junior and Senior Research Project

Funds Flemish research projects by universities in foundational science and engineering.

FWO's Junior and Senior Research Projects programme is the Research Foundation Flanders' flagship annual grant for curiosity-driven fundamental research across all scientific disciplines. Researchers at Flemish institutions propose their own topics entirely bottom-up, with no imposed themes. The programme runs on an annual cycle: the call opens in January, closes in April, and results are announced in December, with projects starting on 1 January of the following year. For the 2027-start cycle, the call closed on 1 April 2026, results will be announced on 11 December 2026, and funded projects begin on 1 January 2027. The overall success rate from the 2025 call was 22.6%.

The Junior track is open to researchers whose supervisor-spokesperson and all co-supervisors obtained their first PhD no more than 12 years before the submission deadline; the Senior track requires the supervisor-spokesperson or at least one co-supervisor to have obtained their PhD more than 12 years prior. Projects run in principle 4 years, with a minimum of 2 years. FWO funds staff and consumables at a minimum of €50,000 per year for the entire project and a maximum of €145,000 per year per participating institution, with non-Flemish partners eligible for up to 10% of the total project budget. Equipment costs may be budgeted up to €150,000 per project in total. On top of the research budget, FWO pays a 6% overhead contribution directly to the host institution. International bilateral collaborations are possible through the WEAVE programme, which is integrated into this funding instrument.

A researcher may act as supervisor-spokesperson for at most one fundamental research project per call, and the total of ongoing plus submitted projects for a single supervisor may not exceed two. Remuneration for supervisors and co-supervisors on FWO research projects is not permitted. Final submission via the FWO E-portal is made by the main host institution. A rebuttal phase runs in September–October, with in-person panel meetings in October preceding the December results announcement.