Fran Dendooven

For SIM this is a great achievement resulting from years of research and knowledge accumulated through participation in SIM funding projects (M3).

M-ERA.NET supports ambitious, transnational R&D projects on materials innovation. A new M-ERA.NET call 2023 is now open with the deadlines: 16 May 2023, 12.00 noon for the pre-proposal and 21 November 2023, 12.00 noon for the full-proposal.

The Eureka call is open from 25 January until 25 April 2023. By participating in this call, Flanders wants to encourage companies to carry out lightweight innovation development projects with partners from the participating regions.

As of December 1st, 2022, SIM welcomed Fleur Maas as its new program manager. Fleur will strengthen and support the existing team and will assist SIM in its study into the needs of the Flemish materials industry.

On 22 November 2022, the Composites Cluster organised an open day in cooperation with AZL Aachen. The participants visited the machinery halls of AZL and its partners.

The SIM Call 2023 is open for proposals fitting within running SIM programs and projects contributing to material-related solutions for societal challenges. Proposals submitted before May 15th, have the guarantee to be evaluated and supported on the 2023 budget.

The 31st Ira-SME call is open. Project proposals can be submitted until 29 March 2023; the call for proposals closes at 12 noon (CET). Ira-SME strengthens the competitiveness of European SMEs. Flanders is participating in this call.

The 35th CORNET call is open. Project proposals can be submitted until 29 March 2023; the call for proposals closes at 12 noon (CET). Only completed proposals including all annexes and submitted within the set deadline via the Submission Tool will be evaluated.

Between 9 and 19 January, the Flanders Investment & Trade Brexit unit is organising a free event in each Flemish province to reflect on what has already changed since the UK’s exit from the EU, map out the changes yet to come and list the (financial) support from FIT.

On 4 October 2022, the Flemish government launched Flanders Technology & Innovation (FTI), a large-scale project on technology and innovation. With this, the Flemish government wants to jointly take a new step into the future. In fact, FTI should become a “progress project” that gives the Flemish people hope for the future.