FWO - International Research Infrastructure (IRI) - Roadmap call 2025

Research

Funding organisation:

Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen

What?

The International Research Infrastructure (IRI) programme governing the participation in and/or funding of international research infrastructure aims to support the Flemish participation in and/or funding of international investment initiatives that are carried out at large-scale international or supranational facilities to which the Flemish Government contributes and/or whose strategic importance for Flanders can be demonstrated.

Renewed IRI programme from 2025

From 2025, the IRI call will be split into two different IRI calls: a roadmap call and a funding call:

The roadmap call is a call for applications for participation in international research infrastructures whose strategic importance for the Flemish Region or the Flemish Community can be demonstrated. 

The funding call (2026) calls for financing or refinancing participation in international research infrastructures.

The IRI roadmap call is only to get support from Flanders without funding. Applications can be submitted for Flemish participation in international research infrastructures that have not yet received political support. The focus is on participation in new research infrastructures (including the context of preparing the new ESFRI roadmap) and participation in existing IRIs/ESFRIs that Flanders does not yet support. Once approved, you can apply for funding through the funding call.

The next IRI funding call, in which one can apply for funding, will take place in 2026. This will only be open for follow-up funding applications of applications that were positively assessed in the 2025 IRI roadmap call.

An application in a roadmap call is admissible only if the following conditions are met:

• The international research infrastructure for which an application for participation is submitted has not been the subject of an unsuccessful application in a roadmap call twice before;
• The international research infrastructure for which an application for participation is submitted has already passed through the design phase;
• No two applications for participation in the same international research infrastructure have been submitted, and the application does not concern participation in an international research infrastructure in which a Flemish consortium is already participating.

Who?

Applying organisation: a research group or research groups of a Flemish scientific institution, a Flemish university, a strategic research centre, an institution for post-initial education, the Flanders Marine Institute, the RZSA-CRC, the Botanic Garden Meise, or a Flemish museum with a research mission, a partnership between the above-mentioned bodies, or a partnership between at least one of the above-mentioned bodies and one or more third parties.
  

Application?

As supervisor of the infrastructure, you prepare the proposal via the FWO e-portal and transfer the proposal in preparation to your institution (= the main applicant of the proposal) before the internal deadline of 05/05/2025. The project proposals will be automatically transferred to the research coordination office (OBI). OBI has to finalize the submission before the FWO deadline (19 May 2025, 17:00). Please make sure that both budget issues and the consortium composition are settled.

Interested parties planning to apply in the roadmap call are required to participate in an intake interview before the submission deadline. These interviews will take place on 19 and 20 March 2025. Timeslots can be fixed via an e-mail request to infrastructuur@fwo.be.
An information session will also be organised on 11 March 2025. If interested, please report your intention to join to infrastructuur@fwo.be

Important dates
August 2025: rebuttal phase
September 2025: evaluation by Science Commission (interviews)
October 2025: evaluation by Strategy commission
November/December 2025: announcement of results

More information?

You can find more information and the specific regulations on the FWO website.

Please always contact research@uhasselt.be if you want to submit.
  

Deadline intern

05.05.2025, 19.05.2025

Contact Hasselt University?

E-mail ilse.das@uhasselt.be

Tel. +3211268098