The Walloon Government continues its commitment to developing scientific and technological research by granting subsidies totalling €78 million to support several Walloon research centres and universities.
These subsidies form part of the priorities of the 2021-2027 cohesion policy and aim to strengthen Wallonia's competitiveness, innovation and ecological transition. This funding is granted under the ERDF-JTF programme 2021-2027. This subsidy provides beneficiaries with the budgetary resources needed to carry their projects through to completion.
This ambitious programme, co-financed by the European Union, is structured around six strategic priorities:
- Priority 1 - A smarter and more competitive Wallonia;
- Priority 2 - A greener Wallonia;
- Priority 3 - A more connected Wallonia through improved mobility for people;
- Priority 4 - A more social Wallonia;
- Priority 5 - A Wallonia closer to its citizens;
- Priority 6 - A Wallonia geared towards a just transition.
Adrien Dolimont, Minister-President of Wallonia in charge of Research: "By continuing to award these strategic subsidies, the Walloon Government reaffirms its commitment to supporting cutting-edge scientific and technological research, essential to the competitiveness, innovation and ecological transition of our region. This funding, under the ERDF-JTF 2021-2027 programme, aims to make Wallonia an even smarter, more sustainable and more connected territory, by placing research at the heart of our priorities to build a more inclusive and resilient society."
Summary of the project portfolio
| Project portfolio | Description | Beneficiaries | Amount |
| "WAL'PROT" | The WAL'PROT project portfolio aims to develop new avenues for valorising plant-based and alternative proteins for human food. To meet the needs of this sector, WAL'PROT will develop cutting-edge solutions to valorise new protein sources, not only from dedicated crops but also from discarded plant material, by-products of the food industry and alternative resources (insects and microalgae). The intended development model will incorporate cascading valorisation of all by-products generated during protein processing, for a multi-sectoral approach. | CELABOR; CER-Groupe; CETIC; CRA-W; Université catholique de Louvain; ULB - Campus UCharleroi; Université de Liège; Université de Liège; UMONS | 8,362,673.77 € |
| Open Transition Lab Sustainable Food | The portfolio aims to deploy a strategic innovation laboratory in Walloon Brabant to develop innovative, local, highly nutritious and environmentally responsible foods with specific health potential. | UCLouvain | 598,683.93 € |
| SUE - ELEN UCL | The SμE-ELEN portfolio (SMART μSYSTEMS FOR HEALTHCARE AND ENVIRONMENT) consists of a single project, "SUE-ELEN.UCLOUVAIN.EQUIP", which aims to acquire cutting-edge equipment to develop and make available to Walloon industry a complete manufacturing and characterisation chain dedicated to microsystems and the integration of smart functions for medical and environmental diagnosis and monitoring. | UCLouvain | 1,415,156.25 € |
| SWaM@Sc (Smart Water Management Across Scales) | The SWaM@Sc portfolio for Smart Water Management Across Scales comprises 7 projects aimed at monitoring/controlling/optimising/leveraging water management (sustainability, environment, flows...) across 5 thematic clusters: “Dashboard 3.0” (ULiège) aims to make water data available to different users at various scales and levels of globalisation; “Water Smart Cities” (ULiège) aims to manage surface water in an innovative and resilient way, as well as manage run-off flows in (peri-)urban areas, with a view to optimising a subnatural hydrological cycle; the “REPAIRS” project (ULiège) aims to measure mass flows of pollutants in the soil-groundwater-river continuum and aims to assess the risk of groundwater pollution (leaching-dispersion). The “Circularity for SMEs and small communities” projects (ULiège and Cebedeau) concern the “water-energy-matter” sector of agri-food SMEs and small communities, aiming to help them optimise the management of their resources. The “AquaBioSens ” projects (ULiège and Cebedeau) aim to develop diagnostic kits contributing to the measurement of aquatic biodiversity and contamination tracking.
| CEBEDEAU, ULiège | 4,837,743.32 € |
| WAL-IMAGIN | The WAL-IMAGIN portfolio aims to structure and strengthen preclinical biological imaging in Wallonia, as well as scientific expertise in immunology, infectiology and vaccinology, by investing in technological and human resources within innovative research projects and high-value services for businesses. | ULiège, ULB, UMONS, UCLouvain and CER GROUPE | 25,598,108.59 € |
| UP_PLASTICS | The UP_PLASTICS portfolio aims to develop a complete value chain around the design of new functional and circular plastics for the construction and building sector, incorporating the sector's diverse needs and demands, both in terms of designing new products with a reduced carbon footprint and recycling waste generated by the renovation of existing buildings. The projects in the portfolio focus on two applications: (1) coatings/paints and (2) foams for thermal and acoustic insulation and electromagnetic shielding. | CSTC - WTCB, CELABOR, Centexbel, CERTECH, International Technology Centre for Earth and Stone, MATERIA NOVA, U.C.L., Université de Liège, UMONS | 5 607 574,51 € |
| DECARBOWAL | DECARBOWAL aims to develop new materials and innovative processes enabling greater decarbonisation of industrial processes (Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU)), the capture of CO2 from ambient air (DAC), the conversion and storage of renewable energy and natural Walloon resources into energy carriers (green hydrogen and e-fuels), as well as the study of their combustion. This approach is resolutely circular and forms part of the implementation of virtuous cycles (biosourced gases, solids and liquids) and will enable the defossilisation of the future energy mix. It aims to have a positive impact on other key sectors besides heavy industry, such as manufacturing, construction, aeronautics, agriculture and liquid waste treatment. | UMONS, Research Centre of the Belgian Ceramics Industry, Université de Liège, U.C.L., Metallurgical Research Centre, ULB - Campus UCharleroi, MATERIA NOVA | 6,167,642.36 € |
| WI3NING - Walloon Innovative and Integrated Industrial maNufacturING | The Wi³ning portfolio comprises a set of research projects from TRL 3 to 6 and the acquisition of cutting-edge equipment tailored to the needs of Walloon manufacturers. It will focus on developing innovative processes, particularly in additive manufacturing and technological hybridisation. The aim is to build and carry out a research programme that will accelerate the deployment of these innovative technologies in industry. | CENTRE DE RECHERCHE EN AERONAUTIQUE, Research Centre of the Belgian Ceramics Industry, MATERIA NOVA, Sirris, U.C.L., ULB - Campus UCharleroi, Université de Liège, UMONS | 5,558,142.99 € |
| PHENIX (Walloon Platforms of Technological and Analytical Excellence in the food industry) | The PHENIX project portfolio (Walloon Platforms of Technological and Analytical Excellence in the food industry) consists of research laboratories from three university institutions in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (ULiège, UMons and ULB) and two accredited research centres (CER groupe and CELABOR). It proposes to bring together, under a common structure, a set of analytical and technological platforms in the field of functional foods (IIS FoodBooster) and biocontrol (IIS DigiBiocontrol) in order to provide companies in the sector with high-performance characterisation tools and innovative production chains. | CELABOR, Université de Liège, UMONS, CER-Groupe, ULB - Gosselies Campus | 12,090,915.00 € |
| MedReSyst: Network and Systems Medicine | Increased life expectancy and changing lifestyles have raised the prevalence of complex diseases, putting the economic viability of healthcare systems at risk. MedReSyst proposes precision medicine using AI and multimodal data to improve treatments, while overcoming deployment challenges across varied healthcare systems using an original method based on learning coalitions. | CETIC, MULTITEL, U.C.L., ULB Gosselies campus, Université de Liège, UMONS | 10,477,607.10 € |
| CyberGalaxia | The CyberGalaxia portfolio is a proposal by IIS CyberWal. The portfolio will produce two TRL 6 cybersecurity demonstrators, which will be located at the Galaxia centre. | CETIC, Multitel, SIRRIS, U.C.L., Université de Liège | 2,790,421.30 € |
| 77,897,094.61 € |