Odysseus programme

The Odysseus programme provides leading researchers who have built up a career outside Belgium, a start-up funding in order to develop or to set up a research line during a five-year period a research group within a Flemish university, potentially in collaboration with (an)other Flemish research organisation(s), and become progressively more involved in the Flemish research landscape.

What makes this programme unique is the combination of a position at a Flemish university and sufficient project funding to establish their own research team. This symbiosis forms the ideal starting point to attract high level, international research to Flanders.

Biannual call. The available budget for this Odysseus call is 21.8 million euro.

• 8 April 2026: call opens
• April-September 2026: internal deadlines at the host institutions (make sure to contact the responsible service of the host institution in due time, including for the unique FWO-weblink that is necessary to create the application in the FWO E-portal)
• 30 September 2026 at 5 PM CEST: call closes (deadline for submission through the FWO E-portal, final submission will be done by host institution itself)
• (End) October 2026: result eligibility check will be communicated by FWO to the candidates and the host institutions
• October 2026-February 2027: international external peer review
• Mid-March 2027: preselection (optional)
• 15-16 April 2027: interview phase (Brussels)
• May 2027: announcement of results
  • Before 1st of September 2027: successful candidates confirm to FWO whether they will (or will not) make use of the awarded funding and appointment + communicate to FWO the official start date of their Odysseus project (after close consultation with the involved host institution(s))
  • Up to 1 year after granting (i.e. from June 1 2027 until May 1 2028 the latest): start of project
• June-July 2027: candidates will receive feedback on their application

• Project funding:
  • Odysseus TYPE I
    • for researchers who are internationally recognized as pioneers in their field;
    • research funding: from 400,000 euro to 700,000 euro per year (2,000,000 euro to 3,500,000 euro for the 5-year period).
  • Odysseus TYPE II
    • for postdoctoral researchers who have the potential to develop a leading international position; max. 12 years post-doc seniority (i.e. first PhD degree can be obtained maximally 12 years before the submission deadline (30/09/2026) of the project, to be counted from the date of obtaining the doctoral degree).
    • research funding: from 100,000 euro to 200,000 euro per year (500,000 euro to 1,000,000 euro for the 5-year period).
• Period: 5 years
• Financial means: Salary costs for staff, equipment and consumables. Salary costs of the positions that need to be made available to the candidates by the universities, cannot be paid by the funding of the Odysseus programme. Candidates who wish to use core facilities during the execution of their project, have to make sure that the fees for that use are budgeted correctly in the ‘consumables’ expenditure category.

• Only the universities in the Flemish Community can, potentially in collaboration with (an)other Flemish research organisation(s), nominate candidates at the FWO.
  
  As an eligible candidate (for TYPE I as well as for TYPE II):
  
  
• you shall have a main appointment of minimum 80% at a foreign institution on the date of the FWO deadline.
• you shall have been affiliated with a foreign institution, with an appointment of minimum 80%, for at least three years in the past five years preceding the FWO submission deadline. During this period abroad, you shall have had an appointment of maximum 10% in Belgium.
• you are only allowed to submit one application per Odysseus call.
• you must update your online FWO E-loket profile including an overview of obtained degrees, past and current occupations and a detailed list of publications.
• Specifically for TYPE II candidates: you have maximally 12 years post-doc seniority (i.e. first PhD degree can be obtained maximally 12 years before the submission deadline (30/09/2026) of the project, to be counted from the date of obtaining first doctoral degree).
  
  As the university, when nominating a candidate, you should:
  
  
• officially declare in a binding declaration of commitment – signed by both the university (rector) and the relevant department/faculty (head of department/faculty) – to appoint the candidate, if selected for Odysseus funding, for a period of five years. Either by providing a ZAP position (TYPE I) or either by providing a full-time tenure track fellowship (TYPE II).
  • See Guidelines for binding declaration of commitment
• strive for a gender balance (= max. 2/3rd of the same gender) when it comes to the own application mass.
• approve the research plan.
  
  Important: In each application, a local co-supervisor needs to be identified. The local co-supervisor is a senior academic staff member (ZAP) with a permanent position and takes up an administrative role rather than an active scientific role. The local co-supervisor is not supposed to supervise or co-execute the proposed research, but e.g. to ensure the embedding of the Odysseus applicant in the host institution/department/faculty/research group. In case the Odysseus applicant renounces the Odysseus project during the 5 year project period, the local co-supervisor will be responsible for handling commitments (e.g. recruited staff on the Odysseus project) made by the Odysseus grantee. A local co-supervisor may only be involved in 1 application per application round.
  
  The candidate as well as the involved university/universities and, if applicable, other involved Flemish research institution(s), are required to agree with the Research Integrity Clause.

• Carefully read the guidelines for candidates and host institutions.
• Internal selection procedure: Each university establishes an internal procedure for the selection of the candidates that they want to nominate to the FWO.
• Nomination to FWO: Taking into account the FWO-deadline, nominated candidates submit their application through the unique link received from the Research Coordination Office (DOC). Remark: the entire application should be written in English and should include the above-mentioned declaration of commitment as well as two letters of recommendation. Final submission will be done by host institution itself.
• NEW! in the online FWO application form:
  • 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. A presentation on this subject can be consulted here.
  • Additional question in the application form about the ‘substantive and/or conceptual contribution’ that the applicant(s) and possibly others have made to the research design and, where applicable, to the associated data collection and analysis and/or interpretation thereof. This concerns information that allows the evaluators to better understand the genesis of the research proposal. Sometimes questions are raised about the extent to which an applicant for a project or mandate has developed the proposal themselves or has (re)used existing ideas from other proposals. It is also a matter of ethics to acknowledge those who have contributed ideas and data, whether as co-applicants, researchers not involved in the application, or in any other capacity. However, this new section in the forms is not intended as a new criterion for scoring the application.
• Eligibility check: The FWO performs for each application an eligibility check and informs afterwards the candidates and host institutions.
  • Please be aware! Guidelines on formal requirements in application forms and accompanying documents of application programmes shall be strictly followed. If these are violated, the application may be declared inadmissible.
• International external peer review: Each application will be evaluated in writing, in principle by 4 international external referees. The evaluation is based on an evaluation grid designed especially for the Odysseus programme.
• Preselection phase (optional): If the number of eligible nominated candidates of a given Type (I or II) exceeds the practical capacity of the interview phase, an ad hoc multidisciplinary international panel (same jury members as in next step) will conduct a preselection. This preselection is based on the 4 submitted recommendations from the external referees for each candidacy, and the panel will select the candidates to be invited for an interview.
• Interview phase: The eligible nominated candidates – or, in the case of a preselection, only those who received a positive assessment – will be invited to present their proposed project to an ad hoc international panel. After the oral presentation, candidates will be interviewed by this Odysseus jury. Based on the external referees’ reports and the interview, the high-level jury compiles a binding ranking based on excellence. Their evaluation is also based on the specific Odysseus evaluation grid.
• Ratification: Successful candidates are awarded by the FWO Board of Trustees, acting on the advice of the Odysseus jury.

• If you have any further questions regarding the Odysseus programme, please email Odysseus@fwo.be.
• For technical (IT) problems regarding e-portal and application modules send an email to the IT helpdesk: FWOhelpdesk@fwo.be.