Defence-related Research Action (DEFRA): Human Factors Open call

Research

What?

Subject to approval by the Council of Ministers, a specific Defence-related Research Action, DEFRA, call in the Human Factors domain, is launched.

The goal of this open call is to explore new solutions towards the development of defence and security policy and optimised functioning and integration of human beings in complex organisations such as defence, from an economical, legal, psychological, sociological, historical, or ethical point of view.

For this DEFRA Human Factors Open Call an indicative budget of 4 M€ will be available.

Projects will have a duration of minimum 2 and maximum 4 years.

A physical information session will be organised on Tuesday 27 January 2026 (8h30 – 16h30) and Wednesday 28 January 2026 (8h30 – 14h30) at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels. Registration is mandatory. You can register until 20 January 2026.

Who?

This call is open to Belgian public and private non-profit research institutes and private companies (both as funded and non-funded partners in the project).
Although it is not mandatory to include a private company in the project partnership, a triple helix composition, where academia and industry work together to foster R&T for Defence, is encouraged.

Take into account that at VLIR level it was decided that the TRL levels of the contribution of universities should be as low as possible.

Application?

The pre-proposals as well as the full proposals must be electronically created, elaborated and submitted via the online submission platform, which will be available after opening of the call.
The template for the full proposals will be available on the website after opening of the call. However, after the evaluation of the pre-proposals a maximum of ten pre-proposals will be invited to submit a full proposal. 

Deadlines:

• Deadline Pre-proposals: 19 February 2026 (14h00)
• Deadline Full proposals: 4 May 2026 (14h00)

As a civil university, Hasselt University attaches great importance to the clear and demonstrable civil application of defence-related research. That is why a preliminary ethical assessment is mandatory for all DEFRA project applications. Are you working on a DEFRA application? Then register your project before submission via RRI@uhasselt.be. This will enable us to carry out the assessment in good time and support you from the outset.

More information?

More information is available on the DEFRA website.

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

Deadline

19.02.2026

Contact Hasselt University?

E-mail sarah.szyr@uhasselt.be

Tel. +3211269052