Who must be involved in a Baekeland mandate?

A Baekeland mandate is a project that is assigned to a ‘consortium’ involving at least a PhD candidate, a Flemish company and a Flemish university. Other types of knowledge centres (or research institutes, strategic research centres, higher education institutions/ university colleges, etc.) can also act as host organisations as far as they cooperate with an academic promotor affiliated with a Flemish university.

Eligibility: Climate plan

For projects submitted from 1 October 2022, an outline of the climate plan must be attached to the subsidy application if the (co-) applicant:

• is a large enterprise according to the European SME definition
  OR
• is an energy-intensive enterprise, i.e. has a final energy consumption of more than 0.1 PJ (petajoule) at the site level. This will consider the location in Flanders where most of the valorisation of the requested subsidy will take place. Final energy consumption is the final net amount of energy delivered to the site without taking into account conversion and transport losses (power plants, refineries, etc.) as defined in Annex 1 of the Energy Policy Agreements for the period 2023-2026. For your information: 0.1 PJ final energy consumption corresponds to 27.8 GWh of electricity, gas, fuel oil, diesel, heat, etc.             

The outline of the climate plan is an eligibility requirement.

Which criteria do candidate mandate holders have to meet to be eligible?

The programme is open to all candidates who are admitted to the PhD programme by a Flemish university. VLAIO does not impose any additional restrictions. Therefore, this funding programme is open to all nationalities and to all academic disciplines. The mandate holder can be an employee of the company or an employee of a knowledge centre (university or research centre).

Candidate mandate holders who already hold a PhD degree will not be accepted. An individual researcher can only be presented twice as a candidate mandate holder within an application for a Baekeland mandate.

The mandate holder carries out the research project in cooperation with the company and the lab of a knowledge centre. He/ She divides his/ her time between the knowledge centre and the company, as stipulated in the cooperation agreement.

Which criteria do companies have to meet to be eligible?

All enterprises that are legal entities and have operational activities in Flanders (or at least a clear impetus to do so).

Non-profit organisations and organisations governed by public law that are a legal entity and have operational activities in Flanders (or at least a clear impetus to do so) and perform economic activities.

At the moment of the submission, the company must not be an ‘undertaking in difficulty’.

The company must have at least one employee who is competent to take on the role of industrial mentor for the mandate holder. Moreover, the existing professional environment should allow the support of the project.

Which projects are eligible for a Baekeland mandate?

Baekeland mandates support basic research that – if successful- has clear economic objectives and offers added value to the company involved in the project. The research should be directed towards obtaining a doctorate (PhD) degree and meet the criteria for doctoral research. In other words, the project is characterized as strategic basic research with an economic finality that is innovative and provides the PhD student with ample intellectual properties. It aims to build scientific or technological knowledge as a basis for economic applications.

The duration of a Baekeland mandate

The duration of a Baekeland mandate is in principle four years. It is possible to obtain a Baekeland mandate for part-time staffing (minimum 50% staffing) as long as the prospects for achieving a PhD degree remain realistic. In the case of part-time staffing, the duration of the project will be extended so that the total funding corresponds to 4 full-time man-years. In case of full-time staffing, the achieved progress as well as the use of

the resources will be evaluated a first time two years after the start of the project. In case of a part-time staffing, the date of the interim evaluation is adjusted accordingly.