2026 - BOF RESEARCH COLLABORATION WITHOUT BOUNDARIES

Research

Funding organisation:

Bijzonder OnderzoeksFonds

What?

The BOF programme “Research collaboration without boundaries” should leverage sustainable multidisciplinary collaborations with disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, where the supervisor is from the Humanities and Social Sciences* (including research group ZEET) and co-promoters can come from any UHasselt faculty or be a non-UHasselt partner, with the latter partner providing 50% effective co-funding¹ and adding research expertise from a different research discipline to the consortium. The intent is to provide seed money, with the goal of serving as the start of a sustainable collaboration that can lead to future joint efforts to apply for new external research funding.

* Humanities and social sciences:

• faculties: Business Economics, Law, Architecture and Art
• School of Social Sciences
• School of Educational Studies
• Research group ZEET

¹ Cofunding should be effective funding (€) (i.e. unallocated resources) or can be provided as in-kind contribution if the respective researcher is exempt from the regular duties or the in-kind contribution can be expressed in actual budget.

Who?

Applications should meet the following conditions:

• Only UHasselt promoters (ZAP-member) from the humanities and social sciences (max. 1 application per promoter) can submit an application;
• You can only submit 1 application as promoter, but can be involved in different applications as co-promoter;
• It should be a new collaboration (the past 4 years are considered - no co-publications; in the application form the possibility is offered to further explain this);
• Fundamental (preliminary) research: TRL level 1 (Projects and/or programmes with the aim of performing basic research and observing basic principles);
• Research that is multidisciplinary in nature, which translates into
  • the involvement of at least 2 UHasselt research groups, in case of a partnership within UHasselt;

• • at least 1 UHasselt research group and 1 non-UHasselt partner (academic or non-academic) providing research expertise from another research discipline and providing 50% effective co-funding of the project budget.

• Each co-promoter provides a substantive contribution and collaborates in the execution of the research project.

A budget of € 150.000 in total is provided for this call. A maximum budget of € 50.000 can be requested per project, including a maximum of € 10.000 operational budget. The requested budget for personnel costs can be used for a researcher in the status of researcher or researcher-expert. However, it is not possible to hire a PhD-student with scholarship with the requested funds. The projects have a maximum duration of 2 years and the researcher must be appointed within the project period.

Application?

Applicants will need to complete and submit an application form to BOF@uhasselt.be, after which a selection committee will provide a ranking to the Bureau of the Research Council.

Deadline and timing

The deadline for this call is October 1, 2026, 23h59 with a selection process in November-December and a start date of January 1, 2027.

Regulations?

Research collaborations without boundaries
BOF regulations

More information?

Contact person: Lieve Tulleneers
E-mail: lieve.tulleneers@uhasselt.be 
Tel.: +32 11 26 90 41

Support with regard to the application form will be guaranteed by BOF@uhasselt.be up to 3 working days before submission date.

Deadline

01.10.2026

Contact Hasselt University?

E-mail lieve.tulleneers@uhasselt.be

Tel. +3211269041