I have an SBO project

Upon award of the contract, the supervisor-spokesperson and the administrative managers of the host institutions involved receive an email with a link to the contract. Via this link the document can be digitally signed by all the contracting parties. The contract is therefore no longer primarily sent to the Research Coordination office of the main host institution. The regulations of the SBO programme and the FWO general regulations form an integral part of the contract.

The awarded grant will be available as from October 1 of the year of the grant. The approved funding can be used throughout the approved project period (typically 4 years). The FWO provides for an additional phase-out period of 2 years. The grant is guaranteed provided that the funding authorities continue to earmark the necessary resources and the FWO regulations are complied with at all times.

For any project involving cooperation between several beneficiaries, you must provide the FWO (SBO@fwo.be) with a cooperation agreement signed by all parties involved within a period of 4 months from the project start date (i.e., before February 1st of the calendar year following the award). The receipt of this cooperation agreement by the FWO is a prerequisite for the further payment of the grant.

The cooperation agreement template used by universities and the majority of research organisations is available on the website. Contact your Tech Transfer Office for support with the IP arrangements between the SBO consortium partners.

If an advisory committee was established, a meeting of its members shall be organised at least once a year. During this meeting, the feasibility of the innovation objective will be discussed as well as the need for adjustments to the approach and the actions already taken or planned to ensure the future utilisation of the results.

The FWO shall be invited in advance and in a timely manner to the meeting (via sbo@fwo.be) and may attend the annual meeting. The supervisor shall in any case forward the minutes of the meeting to the FWO (via sbo@fwo.be). These minutes are an integral part of the mandatory reporting. If no advisory committee was installed (for SBO-E projects with a spin-off finality), a utilisation report shall be submitted each year.

Information concerning FWO’s reporting policy can be found on a dedicated webpage.

Progress and utilisation reports

After the second year both a progress report and a utilisation report must be submitted. The progress report must include a report on the progress of the research and the research activities still to be carried out, and, where appropriate, a list of scientific publications. The utilisation report describes the utilisation-oriented efforts made or still to be made, the utilisation already achieved and/or the expected utilisation of the project results in the short term.

A scientific final report and an utilisation report are required for each project at the end of the project. The reports must be prepared using an online template and submitted to the FWO via the FWO eLoket of the SBO project’s promoter. This template provides detailed guidance on reporting, modalities and reporting deadlines.

Financial reporting

The acceptable costs are determined upon approval of the project. Detailed information about the costs is provided in the SBO cost model.

In each project year, you should, by February 15, provide the FWO with a forecast of the expenditure and before March 15 with a financial report of the expenditure of the grant year in question. The financial report includes a breakdown by expenditure category, posting number, posting date or invoice date and an overall total for the year. Upon completion of the project (including the phase-out period where applicable), the final financial account is calculated based on all the declarable acceptable costs.

The financial reports must be submitted by the Finance department of your research institution. This financial report is signed by the head of the Finance department and a second manager (e.g., head of the research administration) to confirm that the necessary audits have been carried out. They certify the financial report to be “true and accurate”.

Completed projects for which no more expenses can be justified are definitively settled on the basis of the submitted financial reports and, if applicable, the project audit by the auditor of the Research Foundation - Flanders.

Utilisation follow-up

Approval of the scientific, utilisation and financial final report marks the completion of the project implementation. However, the FWO expects that reasonable efforts will continue to be made towards the maximum utilisation of the project results. The FWO may ask for an additional utilisation report to be submitted for up to 5 years after completion of the SBO project.

Notification duty

The actual project implementation may to some extent differ from the original plan. This is acceptable so long as the grant is used towards the achievement of the contractually specified innovation goal. However, should circumstances arise that differ substantially from the starting points that were known at the time of approval of the support (e.g. major changes in the budget or the work, budget shifts between parties or any events that have a great impact on the implementation of the project or the subsequent utilisation of the results), the FWO must be notified immediately.

Shifts within the budget of a contracting party

In practice, the course of a project may vary from the initially planned course. To achieve the project objectives, each contracting party is free to optimally deploy their resources and, where necessary, shift them between cost items (personnel costs, consumables, equipment). However, the maximum project budget per contracting party may not be exceeded.

Budget shifts between research partners of different legal persons

Any shifts between budgets of different legal persons must be requested in advance from the FWO and substantiated by current figures (old versus new situation). All parties involved must sign the request. After approval by the FWO, the updated budget is attached as an addendum to the contract. The payment scheme is adapted accordingly. The total accepted project budget may not be exceeded.