5. The international dimension

Flanders is and remains strongly present in the important European programs for research and innovation. Flanders actively participates in an important number of ERA-Net projects.

The funding through Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship for participation in ERA-NET, Art 185, Art 187 and Eureka in 2018 amounts to  € 17.01 million. In addition, there is a coupled support from the European Commission of € 2.1 million for participation in ECSEL, which brings the total funding to € 19.13 million.

With regard to the leverage, it should be noted that, in addition to direct support in ECSEL, there are three networks that have an EU co-financing commitment through reimbursement to the Hermes Fund after payment to the beneficiaries. Out of the total of € 17.01 million allocated, reserved from the Flemish budget, the European Commission will ultimately pay € 1.44 million through this type of co-financing. For Flanders, the final payment (after receiving the reimbursement) is, therefore, € 15.57 million.

Taking into account the two forms of EU co-financing, there is a commitment to participation in payments of € 3.55 million by the European Commission, as opposed to an estimated payment by Flanders of € 15.57 million, within a total funding amount of € 19.13 million.

Finally, ECSEL also uses resources from the dotation to strategic research centers. This is not funding from the Hermes Fund but is connected to the participation of Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the network. This results in an additional leverage of € 14.24 million for the participating strategic research centers. Through the participation of VLAIO in the networks, Flemish players received a total funding amount of € 17.79 million in 2018.