Junior and Senior Research Project

FWO's Junior and Senior Research Project programme is its main bottom-up route for curiosity-driven basic research in Flanders. It sits under FWO (Flemish Research Foundation) and funds investigator-led projects in any discipline, with two tracks that reflect researcher seniority rather than topic area. Per participating institution, the programme contributes €50,000 to €145,000 a year for staff and consumables over four years, plus up to €150,000 in equipment funding and a 6% overhead supplement to the host institution. The call is annual, open from January to April, and results are announced in December. Junior applicants are defined by postdoctoral seniority of 12 years or less, while senior applicants are beyond that threshold. The 2025 success rate was 22.6%. This is the right route for researchers who want to pursue fundamental questions without an applied theme constraint and who can build a clear investigator-led case. The programme also allows multi-partner and international Weave bilateral collaborations, but each researcher is limited to one role as supervisor-spokesperson per call and no more than two ongoing projects at once.

Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.