It's full speed ahead for interuniversity scientific excellence, as Flemish universities are pooling their resources to finance interuniversity research consortia for the first time. They are investing more than €36 million in iBOF funding.
In this way, they join forces in innovative scientific research and in domains in which several universities have demonstrated excellence. They strengthen their international positioning, which will also empower them to obtain European research funding, including within the framework of the future Horizon Europe programme.
The first iBOF call resulted in 136 applications, of which 30 projects were admitted to the second round. Researchers from VUB are on 8 of the 15 consortia. Prof Ann Nowé leads one consortium: DESCARTES - infectious diseases economy and artificial intelligence with guarantees.