ERA4HEALTH - Prevent-OO call 2026
Research
What?
The ERA4Health partnership has launched the Joint Transnational Call on Prevent-OO: “Understanding and Preventing Overweight and Obesity” (Prevent-OO).The aim of the call is to support transnational collaboration of multidisciplinary scientists from different countries to work together across borders, taking advantage of complementary expertise and sets of data. The call will finance research that improves the understanding of the causes for obesity, overweight and its complications by using a mechanistic approach, as well as studies aiming at the development of public health strategies for the prevention of obesity and overweight by focusing on critical transitional periods of life, which are due to either biological or socio-environmental changes.
The applications must cover only one of the two following topics:
- Understanding causes of obesity and overweight and its complications with mechanistic research
- Prevention and public health strategies for critical transitional periods of life
Funding will come via FWO through the fundamental (FO) or Strategic Basic Research (SBO) channel. The type and scope of the proposed research project will determine the choice of funding channel for the research performed within Flanders (more fundamental in nature, or more aimed at economical/societal valorisation). Non-compliance with the specific requirements per funding channel might lead to non-eligibility.
The FWO is able to support 2 projects for a 36 months duration, with an available maximum applicable budget of 350.000 EUR (overhead included) per project/consortium.
Application?
Project proposals have to be submitted by European and international consortia through the submission platform, and respect the general and ‘national/regional’ eligibility criteria, as taken up in the call text (from p. 11 onwards).It's a 2-step submission:
Deadline submission pre-proposal: 21 January 2026, 12:00
The FWO requires pre-registration on a national/regional level as well by filling in an application form on the FWO e-portal before the deadline for submission of the pre-proposals. When you're logged on to the e-portal, you can find it under "Researcher".
It is strongly recommended to contact the FWO administration about your pre-registration at the latest one week before submission in order to verify admissibility.
For the fundamental funding channel the respective regulation applies. For the SBO channel the SBO regulation has to be taken into account: these imply projects with a primarily economic and/or societal finality, of which ‘valorisation’ is a key - and mandatory - aspect.
Given the pre-proposal already has to be OK in terms of budget, OBI has an internal deadline to check your proposal.
Internal deadline: 14 January 2026
In case the consortium includes more than one partner requesting funding from FWO, a single online form should be submitted containing all relevant information from the different Flemish partners.
13 April 2026: communication of the results and invitation for full proposal
14 April 2026: Webinar for applicants invited to submit a full proposal
Deadline submission full proposal: 10 June 2026
Rebuttal stage: August 24th – September 4th, 2026
End of October 2026: communication of the funding decisions
December 2026 – May 2027: expected start of the project (subject to national procedures)
More information?
You can find more information, like the call text, the submission platform and the proposal application form on the ERA4Health partnership website.Concerning the FWO regulations, you can consult the FWO website:
for the fundamental funding channel
for the SBO channel
Please contact research@uhasselt.be if you want to apply.
Deadline intern
14.01.2026, 21.01.2026
Contact Hasselt University?
E-mail sarah.szyr@uhasselt.be
Tel. +3211269052