Support programmes
With our financial resources we support individual researchers and research teams with personal fellowships and project funding.
All about support programmes
Mobility projects South Korea
This programme supports the exchange of researchers between Flanders and South-Korea (NRF) through two-year joint mobility projects.
Objective
The FWO is keen on promoting international collaboration as a driving force for excellence. That is why the FWO signs bilateral agreements with a number of countries for the funding of scientific mobility projects. Within these projects only travel and living expenses can be funded.
One of these bilateral partners is the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). The FWO-NRF agreement aims to stimulate collaboration between South Korea and Flanders in the area of scientific basic research in all scientific domains by conducting joint mobility projects with a focus at Flemish side on the exchange of junior researchers.
Important dates
- 9 April 2026: call opens at FWO
- At NRF side the call will only be launched on 15 April 2026
- 30 June 2026 at 5pm (Belgian time): deadline (i.e. final submission date at Flemish side via FWO E-portal directly by the applicant, the submission does not take place via the Flemish main host institution. However, the involved host institution at Flemish side will have to give, via their FWO tool, formal institutional consent for the application.)
- July-November 2026: evaluation
- December 2026: announcement of results
- 1 January 2027: start project at FWO- and NRF-side
Features
- Duration of projects: 2 years (01/01/2027 – 31/12/2028)
- All scientific disciplines are eligible.
- Exchanges with special attention to junior researchers: in each project at Flemish side at least one junior researcher should perform an exchange to South Korea. This junior researcher is a predoctoral researcher or a postdoctoral researcher with no more than 12 years of postdoctoral senority (first PhD degree can be obtained maximally 12 years before the submission deadline (30/06/2026) of the project, to be counted from the date of obtaining the doctoral degree). This is not a formal requirement at South Korean side.
- Funding: each party bears the full costs of its own researchers (travel, accommodation and living expenses):
- FWO offers researchers from Flanders a daily living allowance of € 66 (or max. €1,650 per month) on top of the travel expenses towards/from South Korea, to be booked through a travel agency authorized by the FWO.
- NRF pays the researchers from South Korea a total amount of maximum 20,000,000 KRW (about € 11,500) per year to cover the travel expenses towards/from and the stay within Flanders, as well as the organisation of seminars. (Important: Unlike NRF, the FWO will only fund costs related to the exchange of researchers.)
Profile and conditions
- The collaboration with partners from South Korea will have an added value for the project.
- New!: In the framework of this call with NRF, you can only act once as a supervisor-spokesperson or a co-supervisor at Flemish (FWO) side.
- As supervisor-spokesperson of the Flemish research team, you hold a PhD.
- As supervisor-spokesperson of the Flemish research team you hold, throughout the entire period of your project, an appointment of at least 50% at:
- a university in the Flemish Community (including the academic programmes within the corresponding association), or to
- a federal or Flemish scientific institute as scientific staff of the Dutch-speaking community, or to
- a university hospital in the Flemish Community as scientific staff, or to
- a hospital with an academic character recognized as research center in the Flemish Community as scientific staff.
- You agree with the Research Integrity Clause.
- At Flemish (FWO) side: Visits can only be performed by researchers (from PhD student level onwards) holding, throughout the entire period of the exchange visit, an appointment of at least 50% at one of the eligible institutions in Flanders as listed above.
Advice, selection- and evaluation criteria
Check the advice, selection- and evaluation criteria for a mobility project.
Procedure
- Carefully read the guidelines for applicants (see ‘Documents and additional information for applicants’ below) and verify if there are no restrictions regarding international cooperation in FWO funding instruments in place.
- You must submit your project proposal before the deadline to both the FWO and NRF according to the modalities of each institution.
- For FWO you submit your application through the FWO E-portal by using the specific digital application form under ‘International collaboration / Mobility projects’. Please note that each online FWO submission is automatically confirmed by a confirmation email. If you did not receive such an email, please verify whether you properly submitted your application. Please be aware that it is essential to update your FWO E-portal profile each time you submit a new FWO application.
- Specific points of attention FWO application:
- A CV of each involved Flemish and South Korean (co-)supervisor(-spokesperson) that is structured according to the FWO CV mobility projects template. Please note that only the Flemish supervisor-spokesperson can upload these CVs in the FWO application.
- Only the Flemish supervisor-spokesperson should register at FWO by creating an online profile including an overview of academic positions and an updated list of publications on the FWO E-portal before the submission deadline. Please note that the registration of your login/password can take up to 24 hours. It is therefore strongly advised to start well in advance.
- The online FWO application form 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 as a result of this, your project proposal needs a research security approval, please contact the dedicated contact persons at your host institution immediately, preferably before the submission of your proposal. On Tuesday 29/04/2025 an online info session was organized specifically on research security within the framework of the Extra-European calls. The presentation can be consulted here.
- FWO and NRF perform an eligibility check to verify if your application meets all formal criteria of respectively FWO and NRF.
- Please be aware! Guidelines on formal requirements in application forms and accompanying documents and application programmes shall be strictly followed. If these are violated, the application may be declared inadmissible.
- In a first phase, the eligible proposals will be evaluated separately at Flemish and at South Korean side. At FWO the evaluation will be done by the CDP (Cross-Domain Panel). Please be aware that this is an international panel composed of members with a broad variety of scientific expertises. Therefore you are kindly advised to write your proposal for a wide scientific audience.
- In a second phase the results of the separate evaluations (see previous step) are being compared and FWO and NRF take a joint funding decision. Proposals must have been evaluated positively on both the South Korean and Flemish side in order to be fundable.
How to apply?
You can apply for a mobility project with South Korea via our E-loket
Documents and additional information for applicants
Contact
For requesting additional info and for specific questions you can contact your file administrator.
For technical (IT) problems regarding E-portal and application modules send an email to the IT helpdesk: FWOhelpdesk@fwo.be