Research projects and training projects for the South 2027

Who can submit a proposal and what is the minimum partnership?

The project must be submitted by a member of a higher education institution (HEI) in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (WBF) and empowered by this HEI to coordinate the project, with at least one partner in another HEI in WBF and one partner of an HEI from a country included in the list below.

Every WBF coordinator can only submit one project per call, in the WBF and in the partner country.

Eligible countries?

• In Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, DR Congo, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal.
• In South America and Caribe: Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Peru
• In South-East Asia: Cambodia, Philippines, Vietnam.

Duration?

3 or 5 years.

Budget?

• Maximum 350 000 € for 3-year projects.
• Maximum 500 000 € for 5-year projects.

Call details

Download the call document.

How to submit a project?

• The project must be submitted online via GIRAF.
• You don’t have a GIRAF account? Create an account.
• The link to created a preproject form is provided by the contact person for cooperation of the HEI from which the project coordinator comes. The form must be opened by the WBF coordinator of the project proposal.
• Deadline to create a preproject form through the link: Friday 23 March 2026 at midday.
• GIRAF guide for the candidate (only in French).

Preproject proposals must include:

• The project data (identification sheet), the contact details of coordinators and partners and the project summary, to be provided through the GIRAF form.
• The project proposal form, duly filled.
• The indicative budget canevas, duly filled.  
• CVs of coordinators and partners.
• For projects linked to a previous RPD or TPS project, the self-evaluation report of that project.

These documents will be uploaded in pdf through GIRAF.

Selection criteria

• Scientific and pedagogical quality.
• Relevance to development.
• Quality of the intervention strategy.
• Connection with local strategies and other cooperation activities.
• Adequacy of budget breakdown to the proposed intervention strategy.

Selection process

• Verification of the administrative admissibility.
• Analysis by a committee of external experts based on the selection criteria.
• Opinion of the General Direction for Development cooperation (DGD) and diplomatic missions in eligible countries.
• Analysis and selection by the bureau of the International Cooperation Commission (ICC).

The pre-project proposals that are selected will be the only ones eligible to submit a full project proposal.

Synthetic calendar

8 January 2026: Launch of the call for preprojects

23 March 2026 at midday (Belgian hour, UTC+1): Deadline to create a preproject form via GIRAF

7 April 2026 at midday (Belgian hour, UTC+1): Close of the call and submission of the proposals through GIRAF

17 April 2026 at midday (Belgian hour, UTC+1): Validation of the proposals in GIRAF by higher education institutions 

September 2026: Selection of preprojects

15 October 2026: Information meeting on formulation, for selected preprojects

Mid-October 2026 - end of January 2027: Formulation of full projects

1 February 2027 at midday (Belgian hour, UTC+1): Submission of full projects

March 2027: Validation of full projects – approval by the Commission de la coopération internationale

April 2027: Approval of full projects by the executive board of ARES

September-December 2027: Start-up of projects

Reference documents

• Vademecum and mobility guide.
• List of eligible countries.
• List of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
• Detailed calendar.
• Thematic JSFs and geographical JSFs (only in French).
• List of on-going ARES activities (only in French).
• List of annexes.
• Pre-project evaluation grid.

Additional information

• Information session on the call (visioconference)
  • 27 January 2026 at 9.30am (Belgian hour, UTC+1)
  • 5 February 2026 at 1.30pm (Belgian hour, UTC+1)

>> Registration form

• Project elaboration guide (only in French)
• Project elaboration tutorial (only in French)

More information : contact the team via prd-pfs@ares-ac.be.