Programme
General
On 7 September 2018, the Council of Ministers approved the implementation of the second phase of the BRAIN-be (Belgian Research Action through Interdisciplinary Networks) research programme, carried out under the responsibility of the Federal Science Policy (BELSPO).
[Nota aan de Ministerraad] [Note au Conseil des Ministres]
Through the funding of research projects based on scientific excellence, the alignment of the projects with federal priorities and European and international anchorage, this framework programme allows supporting the scientific potential of the Federal Scientific Institutions (FSI) 1 and meeting the federal departments’ scientific knowledge needs.
The framework programme is structured around 3 Pillars:
- Pillar 1: Challenges and knowledge of the living and non-living world
- Pillar 2: Heritage science
- Pillar 3: Federal societal challenges
For its operationalisation BELSPO is assisted by three Advisory Committees and three Strategic Committees (one per pillar).
BRAIN-be 2.0 is open to the whole Belgian scientific community: universities, university colleges, public scientific institutions and non-profit research centres.
Types of research projects
The framework programme is based on the financing of 4 types of research projects:
- National thematic interdisciplinary projects of 2 or 4 years: of a strategic nature, these projects aim to meet the research priorities included in the thematic biennial calls of the three respective pillars. These 2 or 4 year projects are introduced by a research network composed of FSI, other national partners and/or African partners of Least advanced African countries 2,
- Transnational thematic interdisciplinary projects: participation to relevant European, international or transnational research activities,
- Non-thematic bottom-up projects: these projects do not have to adhere to the research priorities included in the thematic biennial calls, but must meet the scope of Pillars 1 or 2 (this project type is not foreseen for Pillar 3). Created to support the scientific potential of Federal Scientific Institutions (FSIs) in their specific areas of expertise and/or missions, bottom-up projects can only be submitted by FSIs. These 2 or 4 year projects may or may not be implemented in collaboration with other FSI and/or national partners and/or African partners of Least advanced African countries 2,
- Non-thematic PhD projects: these 4 year projects are only foreseen in Pillars 1 and 2, and have to be submitted by Federal Scientific Institutes (FSIs) in collaboration with a Belgian university, to support their scientific potential in their specific areas of expertise or missions. The projects do not have to be in line with the research themes in the context of the biennial calls, but must be linked to the general context of the concerned Pillar.
1 The FSI acronyme covers Establishments that are defined by the Royal Decree of 30 October 1996 plus NICC, Sciensano and WHI
2 https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/publication/ldc_list.pdf
