The Special Research Fund (Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds, BOF) is a research grant funding allocated by the Flemish government to the universities every year. The grant funding is distributed among the various Flemish universities on the basis of a competitive system. The BOF funds are allocated through project or fellowship funding for fundamental scientific research.
You can find the BOF regulations on the UHasselt intranet.
You can find more information about the BOF past events on the UHasselt intranet.
The following is an overview of the various BOF programmes. Click on the programme for more information about it.
BOF programme | Deadline* | Application form** |
---|---|---|
next call: fall 2023 | Intranet | |
9 January 2023: declaration of intent | intranet | |
Intranet | ||
1 April |
* If the deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, it is moved to the next working day.
** BOF GDPR
BOF programme | Deadline* | Application form** |
---|---|---|
1 March | Application form without FWO application | |
Intranet | ||
1 March | ||
Next call: 2024 | Application form | |
Euregional Grants in collaboration with Maastricht University | Next call: 2024 | Application form |
End of each quarter | Intranet | |
June, linked to the FWO results | Intranet |
* If the deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, it is moved to the next working day.
** BOF GDPR
BOF programme | Deadline* | Application form** |
---|---|---|
11 April 2023 | Intranet |
BOF programme | Deadline* | Application form** |
---|---|---|
1 February | ||
1 February | Intranet | |
1 February | Intranet | |
1 February | Intranet | |
throughout the year | Intranet |
* If the deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, it is moved to the next working day.
** BOF GDPR
BOF programme | Deadline* | Application form** |
---|---|---|
2 October | Intranet | |
| throughout the year | Intranet |
* If the deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, it is moved to the next working day.
** BOF GDPR
BOF programme | |
---|---|
Hasselt University provides support for the following programs:
| More information can be found on the Intranet - BOF internal guidelines (after login) |
The BOF programme Large Research Projects provides funding for interdisciplinary projects for fundamental scientific research. With this programme Hasselt University intends to promote the interdisciplinary collaboration through research projects that tie in with one of the Grand Challenges at Hasselt University.
More information can be found on the Intranet (after login)
The BOF 'Small Research Projects' programme entails projects with a four-year funding period, on which 1 or 2 pre-doctoral researcher's mandates are awarded. This BOF program is open to both monodisciplinary projects and projects in which 2 researchers with complementary expertise work together.
More information can be found on the Intranet (after login)
The Flemish universities launch a call for interuniversity BOF projects (iBOF projects) every two years.
Within the iBOF programme, excellent, frontier research will be funded, in a collaboration (consortium) of at least 3 promoters at at least 2 Flemish universities.
More information can be found on the Intranet (after login)
Definition
The "Bilateral Scientific Cooperation" programme aims to stimulate and strengthen international university cooperation between Flemish researchers and colleagues from partner countries through (joint) PhD projects. In the selection process, the Research Council monitors a good balance between science-sharing projects with developing countries on one hand, and projects seeking connection to large international networks on the other.
Submission
Applicants
Proposals must meet the following conditions:
Application
Timing
Proposals can be submitted to the Directorate Research, Library and Internationalisation twice a year, on April 1st and October 1st. If this date falls on a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday, the closing date is postponed until the following working day at 5:00 pm.
More information
Contact Hasselt University:
E-mail: elke.bos@uhasselt.be
Tel.: +3211269053
Support with regard to the application form will be guaranteed up to 3 working days before submission date.
Hasselt University Intranet: ‘BOF Internal guidelines’
Definition
The BOF programme ‘Doctoral Scholarship’ involves funding for starting personal mandates with a PhD finality for promising candidate PhDs at the start of a doctoral trajectory.
Applications within the Doctoral Scholarship Programme have the classic form of 2 x 2 years. However, applications for a 2-year funding are possible in case of:
These types of applications with cofinancing are only admissible when the PhD at the other institution hasn’t started yet.
Submission
Applicants
*This call is open to candidate PhD students, without restriction to gender, nationality or age. Since this concerns mandates in the scholarship statute, the circular of the Belgian Ministry of Finance regarding the exemption conditions of doctoral scholarships applies. This states, among other things, that employment contracts may not be replaced by a doctoral scholarship.
Exclusion criteria
Regardless the type of appointment or financing under which the PhD research is executed, candidate PhDs that already started their PhD research (i.e. having started a doctoral file or having an appointment as “doctoraatsbursaal”) are excluded from applying for this call.
A person can only be appointed as a PhD fellow (“doctoraatsbursaal”) for a maximum period of 48 months in total across all Belgian universities; should you have been appointed as "doctoraatsbursaal" at a Belgian university in the past, you're are excluded from applying in this call.
Application
Application form without FWO application
Application form with FWO application
Application form supplementary funding (bench fee)
Timing
In agreement with the faculty, the start date can be postponed, until February 1st of the same academic year at the latest.
More information
Contact Hasselt University:
E-mail: elke.bos@uhasselt.be
Tel.: +3211269053
Support with regard to the application form will be guaranteed up to 3 working days before submission date.
Hasselt University Intranet: ‘BOF Internal guidelines’
This programme is linked to the BOF doctoral scholarship programme. It provides non renewable 1 year scholarship funding for candidates, who were not selected at the BOF nor at the FWO, to prepare a renewed FWO application or another externally funded mandate.
More information can be found on the Intranet (after login)
CALL FOR PROPOSALS 2023
Definition
The BOF programme ‘Euregional Doctoral Grants in collaboration with ‘Université de Namur (UNamur)’ involves funding of personal mandates with a PhD finality. It concerns joint PhDs where both universities have funding to cofund two mandates each year.
The candidate will be appointed at both universities for 50% during the entire PhD.
Submission
Applications
[1] This call is open to candidate PhD students, without restriction to gender, nationality or age. Since this concerns mandates in the scholarship statute, the circular of the Belgian Ministry of Finance regarding the exemption conditions of doctoral scholarships applies. This states, among other things, that employment contracts may not be replaced by a doctoral scholarship.
Exclusion criteria
A person can only be appointed as a PhD fellow (“doctoraatsbursaal”) for a maximum period of 48 months in total across all Belgian universities; should you have been appointed as "doctoraatsbursaal" at a Belgian university in the past, you are excluded from applying in this call.
Application
Timing
More information
Contact UNamur:
E-mail: secretariat.adre@unamur.be
Tel: +3281725049
Contact Hasselt University:
E-mail: elke.bos@uhasselt.be
Tel.: +3211269053
Support with regard to the application form will be guaranteed up to 3 working days before submission date.
UHasselt intranet: BOF internal guidelines
Definition
The BOF programme ‘Euregional Doctoral Grants in collaboration with ‘Université de Liège (ULiège)’ involves funding of personal mandates with a PhD finality. It concerns joint PhDs where both universities have funding to cofund two mandates every two years (the even years). The candidate will be appointed at both universities for 50% during the entire PhD.
The domain in which applications can be submitted will be announced in the call for this programme.
Submission
Applicants
[1] This call is open to candidate PhD students, without restriction to gender, nationality or age. Since this concerns mandates in the scholarship statute, the circular of the Belgian Ministry of Finance regarding the exemption conditions of doctoral scholarships applies. This states, among other things, that employment contracts may not be replaced by a doctoral scholarship.
Exclusion criteria
A person can only be appointed as a PhD fellow (“doctoraatsbursaal”) for a maximum period of 48 months in total across all Belgian universities; should you have been appointed as "doctoraatsbursaal" at a Belgian university in the past, you're are excluded from applying in this call.
Application
Timing
More information
Contact ULiège:
E-mail: denys.jeandrain@uliege.be
Tel: +3243665231
Contact Hasselt University:
E-mail: elke.bos@uhasselt.be
Tel.: +3211269053
Regulations
Support with regard to the application form will be guaranteed up to 3 working days before submission date.
Definition
The BOF programme ‘Euregional Doctoral funding in collaboration with Maastricht University (UM)’ involves funding of personal mandates or project funding with a PhD finality. It concerns joint PhDs where both universities have funding to cofund two projects/mandates each year.
The domain in which applications can be submitted and the type of funding (mandate/project) will be announced yearly in the call for this programme.
Depending on the type of funding (mandate/project), the submission and evaluation criteria will slightly differ as explained below.
Please note that applying for funding within this programme implies working at two universities in two countries and may imply that grantees are employed for two years in Belgium and for two year in the Netherlands in the relevant statutes at both universities concerned.
Submission
Applicants - in case of mandate funding
* This call is open to candidate PhD students, without restriction to gender, nationality or age. Since this concerns mandates in the scholarship statute, the circular of the Belgian Ministry of Finance regarding the exemption conditions of doctoral scholarships applies. This states, among other things, that employment contracts may not be replaced by a doctoral scholarship.
Exclusion criteria
A person can only be appointed as a PhD fellow (“doctoraatsbursaal”) for a maximum period of 48 months in total across all Belgian universities; should you have been appointed as "doctoraatsbursaal" at a Belgian university in the past, you're are excluded from applying in this call.
Applications - in case of project funding
Projects must be submitted by:
Application
Timing
More information
Support with regard to the application form will be guaranteed up to 3 working days before submission date.
UHasselt intranet: BOF internal guidelines
Within this programme promoters who have acquired competitive external funding, but need additional funding to complete the 4-year budget requirements to appoint a PhD student, can apply for 50% personnel costs and € 2,500 bench fee for the last year of appointment.
More information can be found on the Intranet (after login)
Within this programme, funds are earmarked for one-year postdoc mandates for FWO candidate fellows who, following a scientifically favourable ranking, for budgetary reasons, are not offered a fellowship by the FWO.
More information can be found on the Intranet mandates (after login)
Every year, Hasselt University reserves part of the BOF funds for the BOF Research Infrastructure Fund, in order to expand its research infrastructure park. By combining these BOF funds with the FWO Research Infrastructure funds for medium-scale infrastructure, Hasselt University is able to launch a BOF Infrastructure call every four years.
More information can be found on the Intranet (after login)
Definition
The BOF programme for incoming mobility funds incoming international academic research stays for short periods of time (from 1 to 3 months).
Submission
Applicants
This programme is open for academic researchers from the postdoctoral level upwards. The stay of a foreign researcher at our university should have an added value for the UHasselt research.
Application
Timing
The applications for a short stay can be submitted three times a year: February 1st, May 15th and October 1st. Should the deadline fall on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the deadline is moved to the next working day at 5 pm.
More information
Hasselt University contact person: Lieve Tulleneers
Support with regard to the application form will be guaranteed up to 3 working days before submission date.
Intranet: BOF internal guidelines
The BOF programme outgoing mobility funds outgoing international academic research stays for a short period of time (from 1 to 3 months).
More information can be found on the Intranet (after login)
The BOF programme Sabbatical Leave cofinances outgoing international research stays for periods of 3 to 12 months.
More information can be found on the Intranet (after login)
The BOF exchange programme for PhD mobility to and from UC Berkeley facilitates outgoing mobility to UC Berkeley and incoming mobility from UC Berkeley for PhD students through a short stay of 1 to 3 months.
More information can be found on the Intranet (after login)
The Directorate Research, Library and Internationalisation committed itself in 2018 to renew and expand the collaboration agreements with the Fachhochschulen (FHS) in Germany in order to strengthen research cooperation. In this collaboration, doctoral students, with an appointment at an FHS, conduct research under the joint supervision of two academic institutions consisting of a UHasselt supervisor and a co-supervisor of the FHS.
More information can be found on the Intranet (after login)
The BOF programme “Research collaboration without boundaries” should leverage sustainable collaborations with disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, where the supervisor is from the Humanities and Social Sciences* and co-promoters can come from any UHasselt faculty or be a non-UHasselt partner, with the latter partner providing 50% effective co-funding. 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.
More information can be found on the Intranet (after login)
INCENTIVE FUNDING FWO MANDATE (PRE-DOC)
UHasselt provides FWO PhD fellowship grantees that didn’t apply with BOF doctoral fund with the opportunity to apply for additional bench fee once they’ve been granted an FWO fellowship mandate.
More information can be found on the intranet (after login)
INCENTIVE FUNDING BOF TENURE TRACK (ERC GRANT)
With this programme, Hasselt University wants to facilitate BOF TT Assistant Professors in preparing an ERC application. The BOF TT Assistant professors can apply just once for ERC incentive funding during their BOF TT mandate. This funding can be used to hire consultancy, as a resource to cover for replacement during the preparation of the application, to cover research stays with ERC grantees or top researchers, to fund research activities in order to improve the ERC application, etc. These funds will enable the BOF TT Assistant Professor to prepare and submit an ERC application. In total, the BOF TT Assistant Professor can apply for a maximum amount of € 25,000. The ERC-incentive funds can be used to prepare an application for all types of ERC grants such as starting grants, consolidator grants, advanced grants and synergy grants. If this incentive is used, no further claim can be made on other initiatives that exist to support an ERC application.
More information can be found on the intranet (after login)
INCENTIVE FUNDING CONSULTANCY WITHIN EU FRAMEWORK PROGRAMMES
When a promoter plans to apply for a project within the European Framework programme as a coordinator, the promoter can apply for a budget of maximum € 10,000 to hire consultancy to revise the application, including the impact section.
More information can be found on the intranet (after login)
INCENTIVE FUNDING FINANCING THE 4TH YEAR WITHIN WITHIN EU FRAMEWORK PROGRAMMES
With this incentive, funding is made available to finance the fourth year of a PhD fellow, when the acquired external funding through an EU Framework programme only provides funding for three years. The incentive fits the advice of the Board of Deans, stating there must be guarantees for four years of funding at the start of a PhD fellowship.
More information can be found on the intranet (after login)
INCENTIVE FOR EXTERNALLY GRANTED NOMINATIVE MANDATE FINANCING ON A BOF SMALL RESEARCH PROJECT
To meet the increasing demand to provide postdoctoral funding, BOF offers the possibility to appoint a postdoctoral researcher or a new PhD student on the remaining funds of an ongoing BOF Small Project, provided that:
the initially appointed PhD student on that BOF Small Research Project has obtained external nominative mandate funding (e.g. FWO, VLAIO,...);
there are sufficient additional funds to appoint a new PhD student;
the proposed postdoctoral researcher has a clear link with the BOF Small Project.
More information can be found on the intranet (after login)