QuantERA Call 2025 "Transnational Research Proposals supporting the topics of Quantum Phenomena and Resources and Applied Quantum Science"
Fond National de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS)
Call Topics:
The submitted proposals are expected to be aligned with one of the two QuantERA Call 2025 topics:
Quantum Phenomena and Resources (QPR) where the goal is to lay the foundations for the QT of the future.
The focus is on basic quantum science and fundamental physics, and the projects should explore novel quantum phenomena, concepts, resources, protocols, algorithms, and/or address major challenges that prevent broad applications of some quantum technologies;
Applied Quantum Science (AQS) where the goal is to take known quantum effects and established concepts from quantum science, translate them into technological applications and develop new products. These could be novel devices that are based on known quantum effects and that will serve a novel application in QT, or devices and systems that translate known quantum applications into products and industrial applications.
Research areas:
Funded projects in both topics are expected to address one or more of the following areas:
Quantum communication
Quantum simulation
Quantum computation
Quantum sensing and metrology
General quantum science
Expected impacts
Funded projects are expected to significantly advance the state-of-the-art of quantum sciences and technologies4 by achieving one or more of the following targets:
• Develop a deeper fundamental and practical understanding of systems and protocols/algorithms for manipulating and exploiting quantum information,
• Enhance the robustness and scalability of quantum information technologies in the presence of environmental decoherence, hence facilitating their real-world deployment,
• Develop reliable technologies for the different components of quantum architectures,
• Identify new opportunities and applications fostered through quantum technologies, and the possible ways to transfer these technologies from laboratories to industries,
• Enhance interdisciplinarity in crossing traditional boundaries between disciplines in order to enlarge the community involved in tackling these new challenges,
• Move towards a gender diverse and inclusive quantum community, in particular targeting PhD students and early-career researchers,
• Spread excellence throughout Europe by involving partners from the Widening Countries,
• Build leading innovation capacity across Europe by involvement of key actors that can make a difference in the future, for example excellent young researchers, ambitious high-tech SMEs or first-time participants.
Financement
Each partner is funded separately by the national/regional funding organisation they are applying to. They must fulfil the conditions of their funding organisation.
The maximum amount of requested funding per project is 300.000 EUR for a total period of thee years. If the project involves the recruitment of a PhD student, the project duration of the F.R.S.-FNRS sub-project could be up to four years.
Eligible costs items
Personnel costs: 80,000€ EUR per year on average for the duration of the project. The usual duration of ERA-NET research programmes is three years. However, when the project involves a PhD student, the principal investigator can apply for an additional one year funding in order to complete the four years PhD programme. Since this programme is co-funded by the European Commission, this final year should not be included in the budget submitted to this call.
Equipment: can be eligible up to 20% of the total budget of the project
Running costs: travel expenses; organisation of small scientific events in Belgium; consumables and the following support costs: consumables Publication Designing (conception d’ouvrage) Dictionary Production (réalisation de dictionnaire) Purchase of Books Encoding Software Access Rights Congress Registration Fees Purchase of Computer Scanning Travel costs Visa costs Open Access publication of an article up until 500 euros (see F.R.S-FNRS Open Access policy).
“Overhead” is not an eligible cost for FNRS. If the project is selected for funding, these costs will be subject to a separate agreement between the institution of the beneficiary and the F.R.S.-FNRS.
Pour postuler
Transnational level
The Call follows a one-stage submission and evaluation procedure, with each proposal comprising a scientific document (a proposal form typically between 25 and 35 pages) and financial document (a table listing the detailed requested funding and lists of participants).
The Project Coordinator (PC) prepares a joint proposal for the whole consortium, using the templates available on the QuantERA website: http://www.quantera.eu/. The two forms (proposal form and financial form) composing the proposal are submitted via the Electronic Submission System (ESS) for QPR and for AQS.
National/regional level
Applicants must provide basic administrative data by submitting an administrative application on e-space within 5 working days after the general deadline of the call to be eligible. Please select the “PINT-MULTI” funding instrument when creating the administrative application.
Deadlines
Proposals: 5 December 2025, 17.00 CET
e-Space administrative form: 12 December 1 4:00 CET
Requis d'admission
Eligibility of the consortia
To be eligible, research consortia must:
• Each project must comprise at least three eligible partners, based in institutions eligible to Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) participating in the QuantERA Call from at least three countries.
• Each consortium partner is led by a Principal Investigator (PI), who liaises with the respective RFO. The project is coordinated by one of the PIs, the Project Coordinator, who acts as the single point of contact towards the QuantERA Call Secretariat. One PI may not coordinate more than one proposal.
• The consortium budget must be balanced:
- at most 60% of the total requested funding may be requested by partners from one country,
- at most 40% of the total requested funding may be requested by a single partner.
• The consortium should maintain a clear focus, that is, the proposed research must have a clearly defined goal. • Each partner can choose only one funding organisation when submitting a proposal.
See call document for more details.
Regional eligibility criteria
Eligibility for belgian partners (F.R.S. - FNRS):
Applicants requesting funding from F.R.S. FNRS must comply with the following rules.
The applicant must be affiliated to a university from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB).
At the closure of the call, the applicant should also:
- Be a permanent researcher of F.R.S-FNRS (Chercheur qualifié, maître de recherches ou Directeur de recherche) or;
- Hold a tenure track position (or an assimilated position including pending tenure track) with a research institution from the FWB
After the submission of applications, the F.R.S.-FNRS and the research institutions are required to verify the eligibility of the candidates. The F.R.S.-FNRS reserves the right to refuse those whose eligibility criteria would not comply with the Regulation. In order the check the compliance with these eligibility criteria, please contact your contact person at ULB-TTO (see details below). The complete F.R.S-FNRS rules for international research projects is available at the following link: https://www.frs-fnrs.be/docs/Reglement-et-documents/International/FRS-FNRS_PINT-Multi.pdf
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