Expert panels are the beating heart of the FWO. They evaluate the applications for fellowships and research projects.

Changes to panel structure 2025

To ensure the proper treatment of the applications which the expert panels receive, the FWO is introducing some limited changes to some panels’ structure for the new fundamental research calls.

Fellowship panels fundamental research

The fellowship panels Cult2 and G&M4 will both be split into two separate panels each.

Project panels fundamental research

the Cult4 and Cult5 project panels will be merged into the new panel Cult4&5: Theology and Religious Studies, Philosophy and Ethics.

This new structure will be effective beginning with the 2026 calls.

Panels fundamental research

The expert panels fundamental research cover five areas, namely Biological Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Science and Technology. In addition, there is the Specific Interdisciplinary Panel.

Panels PhD fellowship fundamental research

Panels Postdoctoral researcher

Panels Research projects fundamental research

Jury Humanitary acations “Kom op tegen Kanker” and “JEZ!"

In the context of the ‘Kom op tegen Kanker’ and “JEZ!” campaigns, the FWO has a yearly budget available to support patient-oriented research projects with a specific scope on the one hand and “development of young people on a physical, artistic or psychosocial level" on the other hand.

International collaboration

Panels strategic basic research

SBO expert panels are generalist panels in which thematically linked economic and societal projects are evaluated. The most important role of the SBO expert panels is to assign consensus scores for the various scientific and utilization (sub) criteria. This phase is followed by a meta-evaluation carried out by two steering evaluation committees.

Panels PhD fellowship strategic basic research

Panels Projects Strategic Basic Research

SBO steering evaluation committees

The steering committees are responsible for the meta-evaluation of the Strategic Basic Research research projects

Panels Biomedical and clinical research

For the TBM programme, when the call closes, the submitted project proposals are divided into thematic groups based on their subject. A specific expert panel is put together for each thematic group.

Panels research Infrastructure

The evaluation of medium-scale research infrastructure is done by the universities. To evaluate the biennial applications for large-scale research infrastructure, the FWO calls on the Science Commission, composed of international experts, for scientific evaluation and the Invest Commission for financial feasibility. The Science Commission also assesses the scientific quality of the submitted proposals for international research infrastructure. The Strategy commission evaluates the strategic importance for Flanders and whether the investment plans presented are realistic, qualitative and feasible for international research infrastructure applications that are rated scientifically excellent or very good by the Science Commission.

FWO-expert panels

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