AQUASPECT
Advancing QUality Assessment of Spatial Patterns and Ecosystem Characteristics through Technological Advancements

• Budget: 274 995€
• Period: 31/08/2025 - 30/11/2028
• Executor: VLIZ
• Contact: Carlota Muñiz
• BELSPO programme manager: Koen Lefever

Description

AQUASPECT aims to develop regional DTOs to understand plankton dynamics in the North Sea, Baltic Sea and Balearic Sea by using in situ imaging sensors. A new plankton imaging sensor (the UVP6m) will be developed as part of AQUASPECT. The UVP6m expands the observable size range of plankton monitoring by continuously counting particles from 10–1000 µm and capturing in situ images of microplankton from 100–1000 µm. The UVP6m will be deployed in the three study areas along with UVP6 sensors.
The imaging output and associated environmental data will be integrated into the EU Digital Twin and regional Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTOs). In addition, using this data, we will assess the potential of UVP6 and UVP6m observations to complement established methods for calculating OSPAR and HELCOM plankton diversity indicators used in Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) assessments. To achieve this, we will develop automated data flows to ensure seamless integration of the UVP6 data into the EU DTO, aiming to deliver tailored products for ecosystem managers and other stakeholders.  
The objectives of AQUASPECT are to:

1. Augment existing monitoring efforts with high temporal resolution sampling of plankton using imaging, in the eutrophic North Sea;
2. Develop automated dataflows for the taxonomic classification of plankton detected with the UVP6 and UVP6m;
3. Integrate datasets of Essential Ocean/Biodiversity Variables and concomitant environmental data into regional DTOs, as well as the European DTO;
4. Offer stakeholders relevant information on biodiversity and ecosystem state of the BPNS.

Documentation

• Project website
• Social media: linkedin

CodeBlue
Harmonised ocean data sets for blue sustainable eutrophication management of the North-East Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea

• Budget: 274.974€
• Period: 31/08/2025 - 30/11/2028
• Executor: RBINS
• Contact: Arthur Capet (RBINS)
• BELSPO programme manager: Koen Lefever

Description

The CodeBlue project addresses the growing challenge of eutrophication in the North-East Atlantic Ocean and the Baltic Sea, where decades of nutrient enrichment, combined with accelerating climate change, have degraded marine ecosystems. Although international conventions such as HELCOM and OSPAR have defined maximum nutrient inputs to achieve good environmental status, existing data systems and assessments remain fragmented, inconsistent across regions, and insufficient for modern policy needs. Against this backdrop, CodeBlue provides a coherent, transboundary scientific framework to understand how climate change, long-term nutrient cycling and transboundary fluxes shape present and future eutrophication. 

The project’s overarching objectives are to determine the relative roles of anthropogenic nutrient loads and climate change in shaping current eutrophication patterns; to assess whether “Maximum Allowable Inputs” remain adequate under projected environmental change; and to analyse how mitigation measures influence blue-economy sectors such as aquaculture and local marine management. The research is guided by fundamental questions such as whether climate change has already altered the effectiveness of current policies and how future scenarios may require revised thresholds or new management approaches. 

Methodologically, CodeBlue deploys a multi-model, multi-basin approach unprecedented in scope. By integrating observations, satellite data, hydrological information and model outputs from national and international repositories, the project will develop harmonised atmospheric and riverine nutrient forcing and robust biogeochemical data layers. Long-term hindcasts will assess sediment nutrient storage and cycling, while forward-looking simulations will evaluate future conditions and nutrient reduction scenarios. These outputs will be merged using a weighted ensemble modelling framework to quantify uncertainties and produce consistent eutrophication diagnostics across both basins. Stakeholder participation is embedded through a co-design board, involving key policy stakeholder groups such as OSPAR, HELCOM enabling continuous communication between scientists, environmental agencies and policy bodies, and ensuring that the scientific outcomes respond directly to decision-makers’ needs. 

The project’s potential impact spans science, society, economy, and policy. Scientifically, CodeBlue will deliver the first inter-comparable, basin-wide datasets and modelling tools capturing biogeochemical processes from local to regional scales. Economically and societally, the project supports sustainable blue-economy development by analysing how nutrient management affects aquaculture, coastal management, and food security. Environmentally, improved assessments and scenarios will underpin more effective restoration of marine ecosystems, contributing to global and European targets including the EU Green Deal, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For public authorities, the project will harmonise assessment methods across conventions, strengthen policy coherence, and provide updated evidence to revise definitions of good environmental status. CodeBlue also adds value culturally and institutionally by enabling coordinated stewardship of Europe’s marine environment and enriching the data holdings of major scientific institutions. 

The expected final results include large-scale, harmonised multi-model datasets; long-term and future scenario simulations; refined assessment tools; methodological guidelines; a suite of policy briefs; scientific analyses and peer-reviewed publications; and a user-oriented Decision Support Tool accessible through EMODnet and aligned with Digital Twin of the Ocean initiatives. Short-term valorisation will arise through direct integration into ongoing HELCOM and OSPAR processes, as well as stakeholder workshops and blue-pilot case studies. Medium-term benefits include adoption of improved nutrient thresholds, better spatial planning for aquaculture and coastal industries, and transferable modelling and assessment approaches applicable to other European seas. Ultimately, CodeBlue will deliver a durable scientific and governance framework to guide effective, climate-resilient eutrophication management across interconnected marine regions. 

Documentation

• Project website

MSP4MORE
MSP tools for integrating Multiple sustainability objectives under expansion of Offshore Renewable Energy

• Budget: 498.220€
• Period: 01/08/2025 - 01/11/2028
• Executor:
  • RBINS
  • ILVO
• Contact:
  • Steven Degraer (RBINS)
  • Daan Delbare (ILVO)
• BELSPO programme manager: Koen Lefever

Description

Documentation

MiningImpact 3
Assessing the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining of polymetallic nodules and seafloor massive sulphides

• Budget: 350.000€
• Period: 01/08/2025 - 01/11/2029
• Executor: RBINS
• Contact: Steven Degraer (RBINS)
• BELSPO programme manager: Koen Lefever

Description

Documentation

PAGES:
Process-based Assessment for the Good Environmental Status

• Budget: 300.000€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 15/03/2029
• Executor: RBINS
• Contact: Isa Schöne (RBINS)
• BELSPO programme manager: Koen Lefever

Description

Documentation

MAIJobCare
Managing job quality and labour shortages with AI/AM in long-term care

• Budget: 265.300€
• Period: 01/12/2024 - 30/04/2025
• Executor: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
• Contact: Christophe Vanroelen (VUB)
• BELSPO programme manager: Aziz Naji

Description

The MAIJobCare project (Managing Job Quality and Labour Shortages with AI/Algorithmic Management in Long-Term Care) addresses the growing sustainability challenges facing long-term care (LTC) systems across Europe. These challenges include demographic ageing, persistent labour shortages, limited productivity growth in a highly labour-intensive sector, and increasing pressure on traditional care arrangements in the context of rising female labour market participation. At the same time, LTC work is often characterised by low wages, poor working conditions, high turnover and limited worker voice, despite its central societal importance. Recent advances in digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic management (AM) are increasingly promoted as potential solutions to these challenges, yet their implications for job quality, care quality and power relations within LTC remain insufficiently understood.

The project is grounded in the observation that AM and AI are becoming more pervasive in LTC, particularly in areas such as scheduling, task allocation, performance monitoring, recruitment and care coordination. While proponents argue that these technologies can optimise work organisation, improve care delivery and support recruitment and retention, critics warn of risks including work intensification, heightened surveillance, reduced autonomy, deskilling and new forms of inequality. Existing research has largely focused on platform work and management–worker relations, leaving significant gaps in understanding how AM/AI operate in LTC settings, how they affect job quality across different welfare and industrial relations regimes, and how care recipients and families are involved in their deployment.

The overarching objective of MAIJobCare is to examine how AM and AI shape job quality, labour shortages and care quality in LTC, and under what conditions they may contribute to more sustainable and high-quality care systems. The project pursues this objective through a comparative study of five countries (Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Spain and the United Kingdom), representing distinct care, welfare and industrial relations regimes. It focuses on three LTC subsectors, with particular attention to home (domiciliary) care services, while also including more traditional and emerging platform-based care providers. Special emphasis is placed on job quality dimensions that are particularly relevant in algorithmically managed environments, including intrinsic aspects such as occupational health and safety, work intensity, surveillance, autonomy and voice, as well as extrinsic aspects such as wages, working hours, and skills development.

The project is structured around five interrelated work packages and aims to produce several key outputs while adopting a multidisciplinary and mixed-methods research design. Work Package 1 focuses on a structured literature review and the development of an analytical framework including key concepts, and indicators linking job quality and AM/AI in LTC. It combines desk research and secondary analysis of existing survey data. Work Package 2 maps national models of care, regulatory frameworks and labour market contexts through desk research and stakeholder interviews – which will result in five national stock-taking reports. Work Package 3 conducts in-depth qualitative fieldwork based on company case studies. Across the five countries, a total of fifteen company case studies will be conducted, involving interviews with management, supervisors, workers, workplace representatives, care recipients and family members. Work Package 4 undertakes comparative analysis and synthesis across the national case study reports, resulting in a cross-national comparative report. The comparative case study approach allows the project to analyse how national institutional contexts, care models and regulatory frameworks mediate the effects of AM/AI on job and care quality. Work Package 5 is dedicated to stakeholder engagement and dissemination, including a project website, national workshops, and a final international conference. Based on the work in all Work Packages, peer-reviewed academic publications and policy-relevant outputs will be created. Together, these work packages aim to generate robust, policy-relevant and socially grounded knowledge on how AI and AM can be governed to support job quality and care quality, and address labour shortages in LTC.

Documentation

BEL-AI:
Leveraging AI for Belgium: challenges, opportunities and policy solutions

• Budget: 598.782€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 15/03/2029
• Executors:
  • CEPS
  • KU Leuven
  • UCLouvain
• Contact:
  • Laura Nurski (CEPS)
  • Stijn Vanormelingen (KU Leuven)
  • Vincent Vandenberghe (UCLouvain)
• BELSPO programme manager: Emma Moerman

Description

Documentation

BE-SEDEP:
Belgian Strategic Economic Dependence

• Budget: 129.354€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 15/03/2027
• Executors:
  • ULB
  • KU Leuven
• Contact:
  • Glenn Magerman (ULB)
  • Jozef Konings (KU Leuven)
• BELSPO programme manager: Emma Moerman

Description

Documentation

BE-SHIFT:
Belgian SociopsycHological Interventions for Future Transformation

• Budget: 537.783€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 15/03/2029
• Executor:
  • VITO
  • UMONS
  • ULB
• Contact:
  • Michiel Ritzen (VITO)
  • Léo Coppens (UMONS)
  • Jean-Michel Decroly (ULB)
• BELSPO programme manager: Chloë Rogiers

Description

BE-SHIFT aims to support Belgium’s transition to climate neutrality by 2050, emphasizing "sobriety" as a cornerstone of this effort, and positioning the country as a frontrunner in this policy domain. The project investigates the psycho-social drivers that must be activated to promote and accelerate the implementation of policies and measures (PaMs) essential for this transition. From a systemic perspective, BE-SHIFT seeks to generate valuable insights into how PaMs should be effectively designed and implemented to foster sufficiency across key sectors. The analysis also includes an assessment of readiness levels, identifying which PaMs can be implemented more rapidly or which may require societal changes and support before deployment.
To identify the most relevant sectors (e.g., mobility) where sufficiency can be activated and their associated interventions (e.g., modal shift) for Belgium, BE-SHIFT leverages the expertise of a diverse pool of experts within the consortium. These experts cover a range of domains, incl. housing, mobility, diet, and material use. For each selected sector, the project will focus on understanding behavioural change and social dynamics to identify and quantify the psycho-sociological levers that influence the implementation of sufficiency measures. To capture the data needed to understand these sufficiency dynamics, the project combines citizen engagement through surveys and panels to evaluate the social acceptability of proposed sobriety measures, the creation of sufficiency lifestyle profiles to categorize and analyse behavioural patterns, and the use of fuzzy cognitive mapping to quantify the psycho-sociological levers impacting sufficiency policies. By developing a systemic view of each intervention field, BE-SHIFT will enable the simulation of scenarios that activate key socio-behavioural drivers such as social pressure, knowledge literacy or risk aversion. These simulations will reveal the context and interplay of these elements, providing policymakers with actionable insights on which aspects to target and how best to intervene for long-lasting and effective implementation of associated PaMs. Finally, the TIB3R energy system model will be used to evaluate the long-term impact of sobriety policies on greenhouse gas emissions and energy demand for Belgium. This approach will integrate qualitative insights with quantitative modelling to define actionable, sector-specific policies that align with Belgium’s climate goals.
This approach ensures that policymakers have a comprehensive understanding of the actions and systemic and long-term changes required to support sufficiency measures effectively, enabling informed and impactful decision-making.
A key output of BE-SHIFT will be the development of a potential mix of PaMs, designed to assist policymakers in identifying and implementing viable strategies. This mix will be supplemented by a detailed report that outlines the levers and triggers necessary to overcome barriers to the successful implementation of sufficiency policies. The core of the project lies on its robust strategy to identify psycho-social levers and related sufficiency profiles, integrating systemic analysis to understand the dynamics between these. This ensures that the analysis not only identifies theoretical barriers but also provides effective PaMs tailored to the context of each intervention.

Documentation

BE WISE:
Belgium Wellbeing Indicators for Self-Employed

• Budget: 645.639€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 15/03/2029
• Executor:
  • ULiège
  • UGent
  • KU Leuven
• Contact:
  • Wouter Vleugels (ULiège)
  • Gosia Kozusznik (UGent)
  • Martim Euwema (KU Leuven)
• BELSPO programme managers: Emmanuèle Bourgeois, Aziz Naji

Description

Documentation

CHaRM-BE:
Heat, health and hazards: Understanding and mitigating compound environmental risks for health in Belgium

• Budget: 672.889€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 15/03/2029
• Executors:
  • KU Leuven
  • IRM-KMI (RMI)
  • ULiège
  • VUB
  • Sciensano
  • UHasselt
• Contact:
  • Gijs Van Pottelbergh (KU Leuven)
  • Inne Vanderkelen (IRM-KMI-RMI)
  • Xavier Fettweis (ULiège)
  • Veerle Buffel (VUB)
  • Vanessa Gorasso (Sciensano)
  • Christel Faes (UHasselt)
• BELSPO programme manager: Emma Moerman

Description

Documentation

DAMASCUS:
Data management and Impact Evaluations to Inform Policymaking on the Labour Market Integration of Precarious Groups

• Budget: 874.805€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 15/03/2030
• Executors:
  • KU Leuven - HIVA
  • UGent
  • ULB
• Contact:
  • Karolien Lenaerts (KU Leuven - HIVA)
  • Bart Cockx (UGent)
  • Ilan Tojerow (ULB)
• BELSPO programme managers: Emmanuèle Bourgeois, Aziz Naji

Description

Documentation

EM4definingNM:
Development of optimized and validated EM-based methods to support the implementation of the nanomaterial definition for (novel) foods and to facilitate control

• Budget: 357.931€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 15/03/2030
• Executor: Sciensano
• Contact: Jan Mast (Sciensano)
• BELSPO programme managers: Emmanuèle Bourgeois, Chloë Rogiers

Description

Documentation

Fish4Thyroid:
An AOP network-based approach for assessing thyroid hormone system disruption in fish

• Budget: 174.998€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 15/03/2030
• Executor:
  • UAntwerpen - Zebrafish Lab
  • UAntwerpen - Toxicological Centre
• Contact:
  • Dries Knapen (UAntwerpen - Zebrafish Lab)
  • Adrian Covaci UAntwerpen - Toxicological Centre)
• BELSPO programme manager: Chloë Rogiers

Description

Documentation

PRO-ACTIF:
Investigating the NTU of social rights through simulation at the federal level and experimentation at the municipality level

• Budget: 772.667€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 15/03/2030
• Executors:
  • KU Leuven
  • ULB
  • UAntwerpen-CSB
• Contact:
• Philip Verwimp (KU Leuven)
• Ilan Tojerow (ULB)
• Gerlinde Verbist (UAntwerpen-CSB)
• BELSPO programme managers: Emmanuèle Bourgeois, Aziz Naji

Description

Documentation

SEDICAST:
A SEdiment DIspersion foreCASTing system for sand extraction in the Belgian part of the North Sea

• Budget: 199.880€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 15/03/2028
• Executor: UCLouvain
• Contact: Emmanuel Hanert (UCLouvain)
• BELSPO programme manager: Koen Lefever

Description

Documentation

BET ALC
Research on scenarios regarding the affordability of alcoholic beverages

• Budget: 30.000€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 31/03/2026
• Executor: Sciensano
• Contact: Brecht Devleesschauwer
• FPS/PPS involved: FPS Health
• BELSPO programme manager: Aziz Naji

Description

The project aims to assess alcohol pricing measures as a tool to reduce harmful alcohol use in Belgium, as outlined in Action 68 of the Alcohol Plan 2023–2025 within the Interfederal Strategy 2023–2028. National as well as international evidence, including the Superior Health Council, supports such policies. Nevertheless, information is missing on their feasibility and applicability in the Belgian context. Minimum unit pricing (MUP) and excise taxes will be analysed through policy scenarios to estimate their potential effects on alcohol consumption and health outcomes. Based on this analysis, the study will deliver concrete, policy-ready scenarios, identify the most effective pricing options to reduce alcohol consumption, together with their benefits and drawbacks as evaluated by stakeholders.

Documentation

CIPRESA
Comparing Innovative Practices Regarding Ethical and Sustainable Approaches within Food Systems – Elaboration of a methodology and socio-economic evaluation criteria

• Budget: 80.368€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 31/08/2026
• Executor: ILVO
• Contact: Veerle Van linden
• FPS/PPS involved: :
• BELSPO programme manager: Aline van der Werf

Description

Policymakers need a tool to integrally assess innovations in the food system by weighing various sustainability dimensions using appropriate (fit for purpose in the context of use), transparent, and clear criteria. The tool must be applicable to both technological and other types of innovations (e.g., policy-related), must be applicable in the relatively short term (up to a few months), and must be able to assess various alternatives (cases) side-by-side to put the innovation into perspective and to offer a mix of solutions that can withstand the sustainability test. Interaction with stakeholders is important and will be facilitated. Feedback loops are advisable, and stakeholders will be involved from the very beginning.

Documentation

DeepIn
Technico-economic potential of deep decarbonisation options in the industry: survey and lessons for Belgium

• Budget: 43.413€
• Period: 01/12/2024 - 30/04/2025
• Executor: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
• Contact: Tomas Wyns
• FPS/PPS involved: FPS Environment
• BELSPO programme manager: Aline van der Werf

Description

The European Union and its Member States, including Belgium, will have to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. A process is underway to adopt reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. As such, the European Commission proposed a 90% reduction target compared to the 1990 level. The analyses currently available at both European and Belgian level indicate that the two sectors in which it will be particularly difficult or costly to achieve a net zero emission target (“hard-to-abate sectors) are industry and agriculture. Industry is a particularly heterogeneous sector for which a good overview of the technical and economic potential is sorely lacking in Belgium. Existing scenarios indicate a wide range of residual emissions in industry that will need to be mitigated with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS/CCUS) or offset by removals.
This project will bring a much more detailed analysis, taking into account the latest technological developments and their costs, to reach a better understanding of federal, regional and even local policies to support the decarbonisation of industry in Belgium. It will also allow to better anticipate the needs in terms of CCS and connect with public policies relating to carbon removals. The objective is also to better understand, from a macro point of view, the implications of the technological options for the long-term decarbonisation of the main industries in Belgium (including steel, cement and lime production, refining, chemistry, etc.).

Documentation

• Publications
  • Report presentation: DEEPIN - Deep Industrial greenhouse gas reductions in Belgium
  • Final Report: DEEPIN - Deep Industrial greenhouse gas reductions in Belgium
    
    
• Media
  • L’Echo: La Belgique doit agir vite si elle veut décarboner son industrie dans 20 ans
  • De Tijd: Industrie vergroenen lukt niet zonder CO₂-afvoer en goedkopere stroom
    
    
• Event
  • 18.09.2025 | DEEPIN - Report presentation
    Deep Industrial Emission Reductions for Belgium
    More information

ENIGME
Fighting energy poverty: Indicators for the evaluation of federal measures

• Budget: 38.290€
• Period: 15/12/2025 - 30/04/2026
• Executors:
  • Université Libre de Bruxelles
  • Universiteit Antwerpen
• Contact: Sandrine Meyer
• FPS/PPS involved:
• BELSPO programme manager: Aziz Naji

Description

The study aims to establish a comprehensive evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness of four federal measures aiming at reducing energy poverty in Belgium (Social Tariff, Social Heating Fund, Social Energy Fund, and Social Tariff Premium). By mobilising national surveys and available administrative data (identified in a detailed inventory) and elaborating indicators from these data, the study will deliver a broad data inventory and a methodological guide to assess the effectiveness and efficiency (take-up) of these measures in lifting beneficiaries out of energy poverty. It will also monitor which socio-economic profiles (including people in energy poverty) benefit or not, by suggesting a Best Solution, Second-Best Option, or Proxies Data depending on availability and quality.

Documentation

WLSW
Workload of social workers

• Budget: 110.503€
• Period: 01/12/2024 - 15/12/2025
• Executor:
  • Odisee University College
  • KU Leuven
  • Arteveldehogeschool Gent
• Contact: Kaat Van Acker
• FPS/PPS involved: PPS Social Integration
• BELSPO programme manager: Aziz Naji

Description

It is well-known that the job content of social workers often does not correspond to the needs of the Public Centre for Social Welfare’s target groups. It often turns out that a too high (administrative) workload prevents social workers from devoting the optimal amount of time to the personal guidance of the target group.
One of the reasons for the problem would be that the “content” part of the social worker's job is under pressure. In other words, the social worker has to devote too much worktime to “administrative tasks”.
This Flash study will map the administrative processes as well as their impact, which lead to the high workload of social workers. The project should determine whether it is possible to reduce part of this administrative workload. Consequently, this would allow more attention to be paid to personal counselling of the target group, and thus to higher socio-economic integration.

Documentation