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DEFRA Human Factors Open Call

Subject to approval by the Council of Ministers, a specific open call in the Human Factors domain, with a dedicated budget, will be launched soon.

During a dedicated information day (in Dutch or French) (28 January 2026), the DEFRA team will present the objectives, and modalities of this call for proposals to researchers from both the public and private sector. It’s an excellent opportunity to start your network!

Context & budget

The goal of this open call is to explore new solutions towards the development of defence and security policy and optimised functioning and integration of human beings in complex organisations such as defence, from an economical, legal, psychological, sociological, historical, or ethical point of view.

HUMAN FACTORS OPEN CALL Indicative budget (in M€)
Human Factors Open Call 4.0
TOTAL 4.0

Projects will have a duration of minimum 2 and maximum 4 years.

Calendar

Activity Deadline
Information session (in Dutch or French) 28 January 2026
Deadline Pre-proposals 19 February 2026 (14h00)
Communication of evaluation result pre-proposals 23 March 2026
Deadline Full proposals 4 May 2026 (14h00)
Remote scientific peer review evaluation 5 May - 1 June 2026
Ethical evaluation 5 May – 15 June 2026
Feedback to applicants in preparation of panel meeting
(consensus reports & questions to applicants)
30 June 2026
Written feedback by applicants (answers) 31 July 2026
Panel evaluation, incl. interviews with the applicants Between 10 August and 2 September 2026
Selection proposal formulated by the scientific committee of the RHID 10 September 2026
Final selection of proposals by the board of directors of the RHID and allocation of projects 1 October 2026
Communication of results to applicants 6 October 2026
Signature contracts 16 November 2026

Documents

Call information

Template for the Pre-proposal:


Presentations

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Submission

The pre-proposals as well as the full proposals must be electronically created, elaborated and submitted via the online submission platform.
The templates for the pre-proposal and the full proposal are made available on the website. However, after the evaluation of the pre-proposals, a maximum of ten pre-proposals will be invited to submit a full proposal.

A new submission platform is being developed. More information will follow soon.

Deadlines

  • Deadline Pre-proposals: 19 February 2026 (14h00)
  • Deadline Full proposals: 4 May 2025 (14h00)