Pre-application

Through a pre-application, a consortium can receive feedback from VLAIO on a project proposal during the project development phase. This helps identify critical issues in the application at an early stage, such as situations involving research organisations acting as companies, an unbalanced ICON balance or a weak valorisation track record.

For thematic ICON projects, a pre-application is mandatory. For strategic research centre ICON projects and spearhead cluster ICON projects, a pre-application is not mandatory but is strongly encouraged. A limited pre-application may also be requested for specific aspects of the application.

After the pre-application has been submitted, VLAIO carries out a thorough screening of the project proposal and issues a non-binding, substantiated opinion on whether the consortium should further develop and submit a full project proposal. Important points for attention are identified as much as possible, so they can be taken into account when developing the full project proposal.

The processing time for a pre-application is six to eight weeks, although this period may overlap with other project development phase.

Use the template at the bottom of this page to submit a pre-application.

Applying for the final project

The application procedure for an ICON project depends on the type of ICON project:

• Thematic ICON projects are submitted through the relevant programme. For more information, contact the relevant programme managers.
  • For AI-ICON: Flemish AI Research Programme.
  • For CS-ICON: Cybersecurity Research Programme.
  • For VISD-ICON: Flemish Innovation and Industry Strategy for Security and Defence.
  • For MateriNex-ICON: MateriNex - Nexus for Sustainable Materials in Flanders.
  • For WaterstofNet-ICON: WaterstofNet - catalyst for sustainable hydrogen projects.
• Spearhead cluster ICON projects (SPC-ICON) are submitted through the spearhead cluster itself. For more information, please refer to the websites of the relevant spearhead clusters: Catalisti, Flux50, VIL, Flanders' FOOD, De Blauwe Cluster, Biovia en ENT.A.
• Strategic research centre ICON projects (SOC-ICON) are submitted through the strategic research centre. For more information, please refer to imec.icon and the Flanders Make open calls.

Selectivity

Selectivity for the enterprise part

The selectivity criteria for research and development projects submitted from 1 January 2026 onwards were set by the FIO Decision Committee on 11 December 2025.

Based on the scores ‘CRITICAL = exclusion of support, REASONABLE = -1, GOOD = 0, VERY GOOD = +1’, the business part qualifies for support provided that:

• No CRITICAL score has been awarded.
• A total score of ≥ -2 has been awarded on each of the individual axes: quality and impact.

This corresponds to a maximum of two uncompensated points for attention, i.e. reasonable scores, per axis. The evaluation criteria for research projects can be found in Annex 1 to the R&D explanatory document.

Depending on the available budget, the FIO Decision Committee has the right to adjust selectivity during the year. If this happens, it will be communicated on the website in good time.

If the business part does not qualify for support due to selectivity, the research part also lapses.

ICON-specifieke selectiviteit

Four ICON-specific criteria are used to assess ICON projects: 1) the quality of the collaboration, 2) the contribution to the state-of-the-art and the high-risk nature of the research part, 3) the broader application potential of the research part, and 4) compliance with state aid rules.

Based on the scores ‘CRITICAL = exclusion, REASONABLE = -1, GOOD = 0, VERY GOOD = +1’, a project qualifies for support provided that:

• No ICON-specific criterion has been awarded a CRITICAL score.
• A total score of ≥ -2 has been awarded on the ICON axis.

This means that a maximum of two points for attention (-1) may be present for the ICON-specific criteria.