FWO - Call Applied Biomedical Research with a Primary Social finality (TBM) 2025

Research

Funding organisation:

Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen

What?

The TBM call 2025 has been opened.

In the long term, the TBM programme aims at contributing to the implementation of (new) therapies, diagnostic techniques and preventive methods, which, without this government funding, would not make it to the patient due to a lack of industrial interest. Proposals aim to translate scientific findings into clinical applications and consist of activities that are positioned correctly on the path from discovery to application: proof of concept has been reached for the specific therapeutic, diagnostic or preventive measure in the target population, yet (some) further research is still needed before the acquired knowledge can be implemented.

A TBM project meets the following criteria: 

1. A TBM project aims at the development of a new therapy, diagnosis and/or specific prevention of a particular human disease or medical issue or a comparison of existing therapies, diagnostics or preventive methods in order to find out their relative efficacy and cost-effectiveness.

2. A TBM project is directed at research that is positioned late in the path from discovery to a specific application (i.e. there is a clinically relevant proof-of-concept) and aims at translating and developing scientific findings into clinical applications rather than creating knowledge from scratch. On the other hand, it is not positioned too late in the path from discovery to application: it does not consist of implementation activities that no longer require any research.

3. A TBM project offers a clear applicability with an added value for the Flemish health situation, including at least a positive medical impact for a particular group of patients or a cost reduction for the Flemish healthcare system.

4. At the time of submitting the application (or in the near future), the industry is not interested in the TBM project for commercial reasons.

From this call on, applicants are required to put together an advisory board to help them with project design, implementation and post-results. Each member of the advisory board prepares a personal letter explaining their active role in the different phases of the project. The content of these letters is an important aspect in assessing the utilisation component.

Features

• Project period: 2- 4 years
• Acceptable costs:

•  staffing, operation, equipment, subcontracting contracts (in accordance with cost model rules)

• min. 215 000 EUR (excl. overhead) - max. 850 000 EUR (excl. overhead) (for large or multicentric trials, exceptionally budgets up to 1 275 000 EUR are allowed)

• Funding percentage: 100%

The results will be announced 28 November 2025. Projects start on 1 January 2026.
  

Who?

Any Flemish research centre can submit a TBM proposal. Based on their mission, this includes e.g., Flemish universities and their university hospitals, Flemish university colleges, and the Flemish strategic research centres. Otherwise, all other organizations that meet the definition of a research centre (see TBM manual) and that are located in the Flemish region may act as applicants of a TBM project. For-profit actors (e.g., companies) cannot act as applicant or co-applicant of a TBM
proposal. Non-Flemish research centres can also be included in the consortium as co-applicants. A condition is, however, that the total budget for non-Flemish research centres does not exceed 20% of the total budget.

A consortium of applicants (with one main applicant and one or more co-applicants) or a single (main) applicant can submit an application. Given the clinical focus of the programme, however, at least one Flemish hospital (or ITM) must be included in the consortium of applicants for at least 10% of the total budget.

vorige 2 alinea's eventueel schrappen of herwerken na opening oproep

Relevant cooperation across institutions with at least two applicants (institutions). Note that a partnership between a university and the local university hospital is not sufficient to qualify.

As of this call, there is a limitation on the number of TBM projects applied for and ongoing per promoter as follows:

• A researcher can act as a promoter-spokesperson of the lead institution for a maximum of one TBM project per application round and as a co-promoter for a maximum of two TBM projects, whether or not the researcher applies for budget in the process.
• The sum of requested and ongoing TBM projects in the name of the same promoter-spokesperson may not exceed two. The date on which a newly awarded TBM project would normally start applies as the reference date for calculating this total.
• These restrictions only apply within the TBM programme. This therefore has no effect on promotership in other FWO channels.

In a project, the implementation of specific operational subtasks can also be entrusted to subcontractors, including companies. These will always be routine tasks, without any creative input. The cumulated contribution of subcontractors must however remain below 50% of the total budget.
  

Application?

Pre-submission: Since it will be assessed even more strictly than before whether the project proposal meets the conditions of the TBM programme, it is strongly recommended to check the "fit" of the project idea with the FWO administration. You can make a presubmission inquiry well in advance (up to one week before the deadline) via tbm@fwo.be.

Internal submission deadline: The supervisor of the project submits the proposal via the FWO E-loket to the host institution (= main applicant of the proposal) by 14 April 2025 (5 PM).
Submission deadline: The host institution submits the proposal to FWO via the e-portal by 22 April 2025 (5 PM).

Evaluation procedure: The evaluation is performed by permanent panels consisting of scientific evaluators with diverse expertise in the biomedical sector and extensive experience in clinical trials. In addition, external (written) evaluators with expertise in the specific discipline of the project proposal are called upon.

Rebuttal: The interview has been replaced by a written rebuttal from 8-19 September 2025

More information?

More information (slides info session, call related documents, handbook and templates for the submission) can be found on the FWO website.

All researchers who wish to propose a new project idea are strongly advised to send a presubmission inquiry in the form of a short abstract (see template) via e-mail to tbm@fwo.be. It is also possible to request preliminary discussion (online/phone); please attach a short abstract, as well as any questions that you would like to see answered. The presubmission inquiry must reach the FWO at the latest one week before the submission deadline.

Deadline intern

14.04.2024, 22.04.2025

Contact Hasselt University?

E-mail sarah.szyr@uhasselt.be

Tel. +3211269052