Belgium (Flanders): VLAIO

Name of Funding agency
Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO)
Geographical coverage (national/regional)
Flanders region of Belgium
Name of the programme/initiative
Industrial research project - Industrial development project
Programme owner
Fund for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (formerly Hermesfund)
Program manager (executing funding organisation)
Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO)
Contact person(s) (e-mail, tel.)

Maarten ROCKELE / Elsie DE CLERCQ

+32 (0)2 432 43 27 / +32 (0)2 432 42 78

Funding commitment
1.000.000 €
Anticipated number of fundable research partners

No hard limit on the number of Flanders research partners participating in an M-ERA.NET project. A typical M-ERA.NET project has 3 to 4 partners on average. Please observe eligibility requirements at the level of M-ERA.NET.

Maximum funding per grant awarded to a partner

The total funding given to all participating partners from Flanders together in a project should not exceed 500.000 euro. 

Type of research eligible for funding: eligible TRL range

Industrial research project (TRL 1-3)

Industrial development project (TRL 4-7)

Funding rates (approx.)

Maximum 60%-50%, depending on the type of R&D (resp. research and development) including extra’s for small and medium sized companies (SME).

An extra incentive is provided for projects with a Flemish company and a Flemish university or research partner (none of which exceed 70% of the Flemish budget) leading to max. 70% for research and 60% for development.

Major eligibility criteria (e.g. types of organisations, thematic restriction, cost types and caps)

Only companies with (future) economical added value in Flanders can submit proposals (large companies and SME’s). Universities or research institutes can only participate as subcontractor (or research partner) to a Flanders based company. Foreign companies only as subcontractor without own exploitation.

A stand alone participation of only a research group from a university or research institute without a (co-financing) Flemish company is not eligible.

Submission of the proposal at national/regional level (schedule, cut-off dates, deadlines, etc.)

M-ERA.NET 3 call deadlines apply for M-ERA.NET proposals. In addition to the M-ERA.NET 3 pre-proposal also a “VLAIO Annex” has to be submitted to VLAIO with focus on the innovation goal and the valorisation potential of the Flemish participants. This needs to be done by the same deadline as for the M-ERA.NET 3 pre-proposal.

The regular programme is open to all topics with continuous submission possible.

Submission of financial and scientific reports at the national/regional level

The reporting requirements of funded projects are described on the programme websites indicated above.