TBM projects (Applied Biomedical Research with a Primary Social finality)

In the long term, the TBM programme aims at contributing to the implementation of (new) therapies, diagnostic techniques and preventive methods, which would not make it to the patient without government funding due to a lack of industrial interest.

• Call open: from 19 February 2025
• Presubmission inquiry with FWO: always possible (even before opening of the call), no later than one week before the submission deadline
• Internal deadline host institutions: 14 April 2025 (contact the responsible department of the host institution in time about the transfer of the application between the supervisor and the host institution)
• Deadline submission via FWO e-portal by the main host institution: 22 April 2025 at 17h
• Opportunity to rebut in writing: 8-19 September 2025
• Panel meetings: November 2025
• Announcement of results: 28 November 2025
• Start of approved projects: 1 January 2026
• Feedback about the application is sent to main supervisor: January 2026

• Eligible organisations: research centres (e.g. universities, university hospitals, university colleges (‘hogescholen’) and strategic research centres)
  • 20% of the budget can be earmarked for non-Flemish research centres
  • at least 10% of the budget should be earmarked for applicants that are a Flemish hospital or ITM (because of the clinical finality)
• Project period: 2 to 4 years
• Budget:
  • 215,000 – 850,000 euro (for large or multicentric trials, exceptionally budgets up to 1,275,000 euro are allowed)
  • Acceptable costs: staffing, operations, equipment, subcontracting (in accordance with cost model)
  • Funding percentage: 100%
  • Available budget for the call of 2025: 15,173,675 euro (including 17% overhead)
• Success rate 2024: 23%

• Your project matches each of the following 4 conditions:

1. It is aimed at advancing a new therapy, diagnosis and/or specific prevention of a particular human disease/medical issue or comparing existing therapies, diagnostics or preventive methods in order to find out their relative efficacy and cost-effectiveness.
2. It is directed at research that is positioned late in the path from discovery to a specific application (i.e. there is a clinically relevant proof of concept) and aims at translating scientific findings into clinical applications rather than creating new knowledge from scratch. On the other hand, it is not positioned too late in the path from discovery to application: it does not consist of implementation activities that no longer require any research.
3. It offers a clear applicability with an added value for the Flemish health situation, including at least a positive medical impact for a particular group of patients or a cost reduction for the Flemish healthcare system.
4. At the time of submitting the application (or in the near future), the industry is not interested in your project for commercial reasons.

• For the execution of the project, you need bench fees, equipment and personnel grants.
• The organisation(s) to which you belong, are research centre(s) that comply with the definition of a ‘research and knowledge-dissemination organisation’ as mentioned in Art. 2, sec. 83 of the European legislation no. 651/2014. When in doubt, please contact the FWO (tbm@fwo.be).
• The project executors are the owners of their own results.
• Per call, a researcher can act as main supervisor-spokesperson for maximum one TBM project and as co-supervisor for maximum two TBM projects, regardless of whether budget is requested or not. The total of requested and ongoing TBM projects on behalf of a single supervisor-spokesperson may not exceed two. The date on which a newly awarded TBM project would normally start, is used as reference date to calculate this total. This means that there can be only a single ongoing research project on the date that your new research project will start. If there are already two ongoing research projects, one must end on the 31st of December of the year that the application is submitted.
• You agree with the Research Integrity Clause.

• Presubmission. All researchers who wish to propose a new project idea are strongly advised to send a presubmission inquiry in the form of a short abstract (see template) via e-mail to tbm@fwo.be. It is possible to request an oral preliminary discussion at FWO. In addition, some host institutions will organise information sessions and meetings in collaboration with the FWO. For more information, please contact the responsible department of your host institution. The presubmission inquiry must reach the FWO at the latest one week before the submission deadline.
• Submission. As supervisor of the project, you will prepare your proposal via your personal FWO e-portal and submit your complete proposal timely to your host institution. As the main applicant your host institution then will submit your proposal to FWO by the abovementioned deadline.
• Evaluation. Your proposal is reviewed by (inter)national experts who will first evaluate your proposal in writing. The evaluators are members of the TBM-expert panels, as well as external reviewers with specific expertise in the research domain of the project proposal. You will get the opportunity to respond to their remarks via a written rebuttal. Subsequently, the TBM-panel members will discuss and evaluate your proposal during a panel meeting at FWO.
• Rebuttal. Between 8 and 19 September 2025 you will have the opportunity to respond in writing to the comments of the evaluators. The supervisor-spokesperson of the application will receive an email invitation at the primary email address entered into the e-portal, i.e. the email address used to transfer the application to the main host institution. It is important to verify that the invitation of the FWO did not end up in a spam folder. If you have not received a notification by 8 September, you should alert the FWO as soon as possible. It is advised to make prior arrangements for the drafting and submission of the rebuttal in case the supervisor-spokesperson is indisposed. In any case, force majeure must be demonstrated with a medical certificate or other relevant official document.
• Decision. The expert panels will report to the board of trustees of the FWO. The board of trustees will decide on granting support.
• Feedback. Following the announcement of the results, each supervisor-spokesperson will receive feedback about the decision.

For questions with regard to the modalities of the TBM programme, please contact tbm@fwo.be. For technical problems regarding the e-portal, please mail the IT helpdesk at fwohelpdesk@fwo.be.

The TBM programme and the evaluation procedure are explained in this video and pdf. Several host institutions also organise information sessions. Contact the responsible service at your institution about the practical details.

Owing to its clinical finality the TBM programme was hit exceptionally hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the FWO has decided to grant certain ongoing TBM projects an exceptional renewal. An application for renewal should be discussed in advance with the FWO administration. For terms and conditions, see ongoing projects.