Call for FWO-NRF research projects: bilateral research cooperation South Africa

The FWO is keen on promoting international collaboration as a driving force for excellence. That is why the FWO signs bilateral agreements with a number of countries/regions to fund joint research projects. These projects go further than the traditional mobility projects, because personnel and consumables as well as equipment can also be financed.

One of the selected countries/regions is South Africa. The FWO has reached an agreement with the South African funder National Research Foundation (NRF) on the funding of fundamental research in all domains.

• 3 March 2026: call open
• 26 May 2026 5pm (local time): FWO deadline
• 26 May 2026 5pm (local time): NRF deadline
• November 2026: joint FWO-NRF evaluation panel
• December 2026: announcement of results
• 1 January 2027: start projects

Features

• Joint research project with partners from South Africa. It must be an integrated research proposal with a central research question, methodology, and work plan.
• Fundamental research in all disciplines
• Project duration: 3 years
• Staff and consumables applied for at FWO: minimally € 45,000 and maximally € 85,000 per year per project. If you want to use ‘core facilities’ during the execution of your project, do make sure that the fees for that use are budgeted correctly in the ‘consumables’ expenditure category. Equipment funding applied for at FWO maximally € 150,000 per project.
• Succes rate 2023 call: 13% (6 projects)

Profile and conditions

• The collaboration with partners from South Africa will have added value for the proposed research project.
• Your research will be carried out at an eligible Flemish main host institution, possibly in collaboration with other Flemish and/or federal research institutions (Article 7) and under the supervision of a supervisor-spokesperson, possible in collaboration with other (co-)supervisors (Article 10 - 12). In contrast to the junior/senior research projects fundamental research no distinction is made between junior and senior research projects in the framework of this bilateral call with South Africa. In addition, it is not possible to use 10% of the budget requested at FWO for non-Flemish research institutions.
• In the framework of this call with NRF, you can only act once as a supervisor(-spokesperson) or co-supervisor.
• Applications in the framework of this cooperation are not part of the project competition junior/senior research projects fundamental research and as a result
  • do not count for the maximum of one project per application round for which you may act as (co-)supervisor(-spokesperson);
  • are not taken into account for the maximum of two projects applied for and ongoing on the start date of the newly allocated project.
• No remuneration or accumulation with a remuneration is allowed for (co-)supervisor(s)(-spokesperson) under a research project funded by FWO.
• You agree with the Research Integrity Clause.