FWO Junior & Senior Research Projects & Weave: CALL 2026 + Info Session & Training
Research
Funding organisation:
Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen
What?
FWO opened the 2026 call regarding the Junior & Senior Research Projects and the Weave Research Projects.
FWO Junior & Senior Research Projects:
Research projects are initiated by the researchers. Two types can be awarded: junior and senior research projects. The objective of FWO's Research projects is to advance fundamental scientific research. This happens on the initiative of the researcher in all scientific disciplines.
- For junior projects, a supervisor-spokesperson and (co-)supervisor must have obtained his/her first PhD degree max. 12 years before the submission deadline of the project application.
- For senior projects, the supervisor-spokesperson or the (co-)supervisor has obtained his/her first PhD degree more than 12 years before the submission deadline of the project application.
Weave Programme:
Weave supports excellent European collaborative research projects across national and regional borders. Based on the Lead Agency Principle, Weave aims to simplify collaborative project proposal submission and selection procedure. Weave is not a new, separate funding programme. It uses existing funding channels for fundamental research (with the corresponding timelines and conditions) within the portfolio of one of the partners who have officially signed the Weave initiative. The FWO has integrated the Weave initiative as of 2021 within its channel for regular FWO research projects for fundamental research.
The Weave programme is also an excellent opportunity to apply with EURECA-PRO partner universities in Austria, Germany, and Poland.
For Weave, 2 online info sessions will be organised:
FWO-NWO Domain ENW organise an online info session on 12/02/2026. Registration can be done via this link.
FWO/F.R.S.-FNRS organise an online info session on 23/02/2026. Registration can be done via this link.
In this 2026 junior-senior-WEAVE call, the following changes are implemented:
1) A supervisor-spokesperson or (co-)supervisor may represent several eligible institutions within the framework of the same project. In this case, there are budgetary restrictions on staff and consumables that apply to all institutions represented by that supervisor-spokesperson or (co-)supervisor together. In other words, you can apply for a maximum of € 145.000 per year for all the institutions you represent. Institutions that you do not represent can each apply for the maximum amount of € 145.000 separately. If your name appears in the application for several participating institutions, this will be interpreted as you representing those institutions. In that case, the budgetary restriction as indicated above will apply. If you belong to a particular institution that is involved in the application but is not represented by you, do not mention your name.
2) From this call onwards, you will find an additional question in the application form about the ‘substantive and/or conceptual contribution’ that the applicant(s) and possibly others have made to the research design and, where applicable, to the associated data collection and analysis and/or interpretation thereof. This concerns information that allows the evaluators to better understand the genesis of the research proposal. Sometimes questions are raised about the extent to which an applicant for a project or mandate has developed the proposal themselves or has (re)used existing ideas from other proposals. It is also a matter of ethics to acknowledge those who have contributed ideas and data, whether as co-applicants, researchers not involved in the application, or in any other capacity. However, this new section in the forms is not intended as a new criterion for scoring the application.
Please note that guidelines on formal requirements for application forms and accompanying documents of application programmes must be strictly followed. If these requirements are not met, the application may be declared inadmissible.
The changes that were implemented in the 2025 call still remain in force:
1) Only ONE project application can be submitted per (co-)promoter. The rule that a maximum of two ongoing and/or applied projects in total is allowed for one applicant (whereby projects that have not applied for a budget are not taken into account) remains in force. But in whatever capacity (promoter-spokesperson, promoter or co-promoter), you will still only be able to submit a maximum of 1 application.
Please check the "decision tree" if you want to see if you can still submit an application!
2) The online FWO application form contains a specific tab 'Research Security'. Applicants are required, based on the topic of their research proposal, involved countries and foreign partners, to complete a set of questions regarding unwanted knowledge transfer, misuse of research results and/or interference. For questions regarding Research Security, contact rri@uhasselt.be.
3) It is more explicitly highlighted than before how results in the past or the future related to Open Science (such as datasets, research software, but also ‘grey literature’ a.o.) can be mentioned and can contribute to the quality of the proposal.
4) Expansion of expenditure categories: it's possible to also finance collections, natural habitats, corpora, databases (including their digital disclosure, excluding personnel costs) and connections to platforms with the resources for equipment. However, it remains the case that only costs for equipment, included in the budget for equipment in the granted application, will be accepted. Unforeseen costs under that category are not allowed. See articles 22 and 27, paragraph 1, point 4 of the Regulations for research projects.
Application?
IMPORTANT: PROCESS REGARDING INTERNAL DEADLINES!Applicants must submit their research proposal via the FWO e-portal before the internal deadline. The applications will be automatically transferred to the research coordination office (OBI). OBI has to finalize the submission before the FWO deadline (1 April 2026).
Internal deadline 1: Wednesday 18 March 2026 (12:00, noon)
The supervisor-spokesperson submits the application to the host institution, at which time the following tabs need to be final:
- General
- Host Institution - Requested funding
No support from OBI can be guaranteed for applications submitted after this deadline.
Reopening after internal deadline 1:
Ultimately the day after submission OBI reopens all applications for the supervisor-spokesperson to finalise the tabs:
- Project
- Peer review
- Ethics
- Data Management Plan
- Consent
- Attachment: CV’s
The supervisor-spokesperson resubmits the application to the Host Institution. At this point, all tabs need to be final. The application will only be reopened if OBI detects non-compliance with the FWO rules and regulations. No more changes can be made to the scientific part.
For applications submitted after this deadline, it cannot be guaranteed that they will be transferred to the FWO before the external deadline.
These internal deadlines are only applicable if UHasselt is the main applicant. When UHasselt is a co-applicant, you have to respect the internal deadline of the university of the main applicant.
Weave programme
- Submission of the joint project proposal at the FWO (FWO as Lead Agency): besides submission of the entire application to the FWO (following the aforementioned rules), for each involved Weave country/region, an obligatory administrative submission needs to be done as well to the involved non-Flemish/foreign research funder. For more information on the modalities and deadlines for each partner, see this webpage.
- Submission of the joint project proposal at another funder than the FWO (FWO as Partner Agency): besides submission of the entire application to the non-Flemish/foreign funder, the Flemish supervisor-spokesperson needs to make an obligatory administrative submission to the FWO through the FWO E-portal, by using the specific application form ‘Research project WEAVE (FWO acts as Partner Agency)’. Important: in the tab ‘project’, you must upload the complete and identical application with all attachments (not only the project description) as submitted to the Lead Agency (PDF format). Furthermore, make sure that each applicant involved at Flemish and non-Flemish sides as well as the requested Flemish budget submitted to the Lead Agency, are identical to what is being submitted to the FWO in the administrative submission.
More information?
UHasselt info:
- Useful UHasselt relevant documents can be found on intranet.
- CLOSED: This workshop is only open to UHasselt staff. Workshop: Focus on the FWO junior/senior research project: boosting your grant-writing skill and rhetorical strategy (2 December 2025, 09:00-12:00).
To support applicants applying for a junior or senior research project, the research coordination office invites Julia Staykova-McKinnon from Scriptorium Training & Consulting for a remote workshop, "Focus on the FWO junior/senior research project: boosting your grant-writing skill and rhetorical strategy". The workshop consists of 1 session (you can find the workshop programme here). Registrations are closed.
- Online info session FWO junior/senior research projects & WEAVE initiative - 3 February 2026 (12:30 - 14:00)
To launch the 2026 call at Hasselt University, FWO will introduce the eligibility criteria, the application procedure, and selection procedure during an info session. Registration is mandatory and still possible via this registration form until 27/01/2026 (noon). Please also register if you can't attend the info session, but you want to receive the presentation and the recording.
Deadline intern
18.03.2026, 01.04.2026
Contact Hasselt University?
E-mail sarah.szyr@uhasselt.be
Tel. +3211269052