Objective

Funding resources for research and innovation in the agriculture and food sector in order to accelerate the transition towards sustainable agriculture and flexible food systems were allocated to the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) for the organisation of a thematic call for research projects in the domain of “Innovation in the Agriculture and Food Sector”. The budget available for this call is 10 million euros (budget of 2025 & 2026 combined).

A research project within the thematic call “Innovation in the Agriculture and Food Sector” involves innovative strategic basic research that, in case of scientific success, provides prospects for future economic or societal applications (in the form of a new products, processes and/or services). The scientific research is expected to offer practical solutions or policy support to facilitate the transformation and innovation within the agriculture and food sector, including aspects such as profitability, environmental impact, climate, agro-ecology, short food supply chains, biodiversity and scalability.

Important dates

Eligible research domains

Based on the outcome of the “FIT4Food” research agenda and the objectives of the “Flemish Food Strategy”, the following eligible research themes have been defined. These are clustered under three overarching domains.

• Agriculture and food systems within ecological boundaries: sustainable agricultural practices and crops and animal welfare: Systems thinking; Ecologically sustainable agricultural practices; Alternative protein sources; Alternative agricultural systems; Circular food systems; Animal welfare; Water storage by agricultural systems.
• Healthy and sustainable food for everyone: Food environments; Criteria and labelling; Citizen trust; Citizen science projects.
• Resilient food economy: New business models; Pricing; Fair and sustainable trade

These themes are further explained in the applicant's guide.

Important changes in call 2025-2026:

• In each call for proposals, a researcher may only act as promoter-spokesperson or co-promoter for one single SBO project, regardless of whether the project is submitted under the regular call or the thematic call 'Innovation in the agri-food sector'. This condition applies whether or not a budget is requested.
• The total number of SBO projects - including submitted proposals and ongoing projects - in which the same researcher is involved as promoter-spokesperson or co-promoter must not exceed two. For compliance purposes, the contractual start date of the project proposal will be taken as the reference point. Projects for which no budget is requested by the proposer nor any other representative of its host institution are exempted from this limit.
• The Flemish, national and international university supervisor and co- supervisors applying for a budget must have a ZAP appointment and thus comply with the provisions of Art. 10 of the Fundamental Research Project Regulations. For non-university applicants, an equivalent functional role with a doctoral title is expected, e.g. at the level of Principal Investigator, Research Director, Senior Fellow, Chief Scientist (non-exhaustive list).
• C-scores apply to both the annual regular (i.e. bottom-up) SBO call and the biennial thematic SBO projects (innovation in the agri-food sector). Project applications that have received a C-score cannot be submitted to the next SBO call,  regardless of their type.
• The same project cannot be simultaneously evaluated in two SBO channels (i.e., the regular SBO programme and the thematic SBO programme for research projects in the area of “Innovation in the agri-food sector”).
• The online application form now 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. If this shows your project proposal needs a research security approval, please contact the dedicated contact persons at your host institution immediately, preferably before the pre-registration of your proposal.

Characteristics

This thematic call follows the program “Strategic Basic Research” in terms of the type of research, duration, budget, and evaluation procedure.

• Duration: 4 years. A shorter implementation period may be accepted with justification.
• Acceptable costs: personnel costs, operational costs (including subcontracting for a maximum of 30 % of the total budget and small equipment costing less than 20,000 euros).
• Maximum of € 425,000/year (excluding 17 % overhead) per project year and per participating legal entity with a minimum share of 15 % of the total project budget.
• Guideline for project budget: € 1.7 million (excluding 17 % overhead).
• Subsidy percentage of acceptable costs: 100 %.The available budget for this call is 10 million euros (budget from 2025 & 2026 combined).
• Success rate previous call (2023): ca. 20%
• A project proposal can be submitted by a principal investigator affiliated with one of the five universities in the Flemish Community or a principal investigator affiliated with a Flemish research center (e.g., VITO, VIB, IMEC, VLIZ, Flemish university colleges, Flemish scientific institutions funded by the government, etc.).
• In addition to these institutions, non-Flemish research centers can participate as partners in the consortium for a maximum of 20% of the budget, provided that there is a justification stating that the involvement of this partner is necessary for the successful implementation of the project and to achieve the project's utilization objectives.
• Each legal entity participating in the consortium must meet the definition of a research institution (i.e. a research and knowledge-dissemination organisation) as set out in Article 2(83) of Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014).
• Deadline transfer of the proposal in preparation from project supervisor to the ”host institution of the supervisor” (=main applicant): September 12, 2025 at 5 PM
• Deadline submission final project proposal by the main applicant: September 26, 2025 at 5 PM. Since the projects are submitted by the host institutions, internal submission deadlines tend to differ. Please contact the responsible services at the supervisor's host institution
• Announcement of results: end of May 2026

Applicants' profile and requirements

• A project proposal can be submitted by a principal investigator affiliated with one of the five universities in the Flemish Community or a principal investigator affiliated with a Flemish research center (e.g., VITO, VIB, IMEC, VLIZ, Flemish university colleges, Flemish scientific institutions funded by the government, etc.).
• In addition to these institutions, non-Flemish research centers can participate as partners in the consortium for a maximum of 20% of the budget, provided that there is a justification stating that the involvement of this partner is necessary for the successful implementation of the project and to achieve the project's utilization objectives.
• Each legal entity participating in the consortium must meet the definition of a research institution (i.e. a research and knowledge-dissemination organisation) as set out in Article 2(83) of Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014).

Application and evaluation procedure

• As supervisor of the project, you are responsible for preparing your proposal via the FWO e-portal and transfer your pre-proposal to your host institution (=main applicant of the proposal) through the FWO e-portal by Friday, September 12, 2025 at 5 PM. This pre-notification is required for the eligibility of the final project proposal.
  • This pre-proposal should contain at least the following information 1) project title and duration (“General” tab), 2) non-confidential summary and detailed scientific and valorisation innovation objectives (“Summary” tab), 3) full composition of the project consortium (“Applicants” tab), 4) specification of the research topic and experts to be avoided (optional, max. 3) (“Peer Review” tab). In addition, consent should be given by accepting the declaration (“Consent” tab).
• Your host institution submits your full proposal to FWO via the e-portal by Friday, September 26, 2025 at 5 PM. Please contact the research coordination office and/or Tech Transfer Office of your research institution for internal deadlines and practicalities.
• Each project application is reviewed by external international experts.
• You receive the reports from the international reviewers on Wednesday, January 7, 2026 and you have 7 working days to rebut. This is done via an invitation e-mail to the supervisor, as well as via a notification in the e-portal. It is important to check whether the invitation message from the FWO has not ended up in a spam folder. If you did not receive a message on January 7, 2026, you must inform the FWO at your earliest convenience.
• The internal peer review is conducted by a thematic expert panel that evaluates the scientific quality and the utilisation approach and potential of the different applications, based on the project proposal, external evaluation reports, and the rebuttal.
• The FWO board of directors decides on the support during its meeting in May 2026.
• Subsequently, you will receive feedback on the decision and its rationale.