ESI Projects
Early Stage Innovation (ESI) projects involve innovative research that is unique with regards to the state-of-the-art, has a clear differentiating factor, and tests disruptive ideas at low TRL levels. In the event of scientific success, the research offers a prospect for future economic applications.
The intended knowledge acquisition of an ESI project technically and substantively deepens the Moonshot roadmap. Additionally, an ESI project is never a stand-alone project, but is sharply defined to fit within a specific Moonshot Research Path and to contribute to the KPIs of one or multiple paths. Thus, the accumulated knowledge from ESI projects contributes to a more elaborated research trajectory and the realisation of the overall Moonshot goals. A clear (quantitative) contribution to CO2 emission abatement and carbon-circularity is mandatory.
Each ESI project proposal is submitted by a consortium of at least three research groups from at least two Flemish research organisations. A well-performing consortium is slim, balanced, complementary and with good understanding and cooperation. Complementarity or cooperation with a non-Flanders research group should not be avoided if appropriate for competence building and success.
ESI projects have a max. duration of 48 months with a max. budget of 3 million euro at a funding percentage of 100%.
For more information about the available project types, contact the moonshot
catalisti.be (Moonshot team).
Evaluation of ESI Projects
The evaluation of ESI project proposals includes two major phases.
Pre-proposal phase
Project consortia can register their project idea for Moonshot by submitting a pre-proposal form. In the next step, all pre-proposals are forwarded to the Scientific Advisory Board (WAR), which assesses their alignment with the Moonshot objectives and provides advisory input. The final decision regarding the selection of project ideas based on the pre-proposals lies with the governing bodies of the respective spearhead clusters which take into account the consolidated WAR advice.
- For paths 1-2-3, the decision is taken by the respective Moonshot industrial expert committees (composed of the companies of the Catalisti innovation committee with additional companies of the steel and petrochemical sector).
- For path 4, the decision is taken by the Flux50 Board of Directors after review by the Moonshot industrial expert committee of path 4 (composed of the companies of the Catalisti innovation committee with additional companies of the energy sector).
The decisions are then communicated to the applicants, including the underlying reasoning and, if positive, an overview of the next steps. The selected consortia will be invited to prepare a full proposal.
Full proposal phase
In the full proposal phase, each ESI project proposal is evaluated, in line with the VLAIO evaluation procedure, by independent academic experts. VLAIO and the Moonshot operational team select these experts based on their project-specific and subject-related expertise. Naturally, all experts must meet certain objectivity criteria so that no conflicts of interest exist in their relationship with the submitting parties.
Each expert individually prepares a written evaluation of the project proposal that takes into account ESI-specific evaluation criteria, with specific focus on two parts of the project application: the scientific project description and the intended valorisation. Any questions the experts might have are submitted to and answered by the consortium in writing.
Following the expert evaluation, the project proposal, together with the evaluation reports and the rebuttal written by the project consortium, is provided to the members of the WAR, comprising both industrial and academic representatives. All WAR members assess the project proposal against the ESI-specific criteria and the overall Moonshot targets, taking its contribution to the Moonshot roadmap into account.
Based on the project proposal, the three evaluation reports and the rebuttal, each WAR member formulates an individual assessment. These individual assessments are then discussed within the WAR until a consensus is reached. Once consensus has been achieved, the industrial members of the WAR establish a ranking of the submitted project proposals.
Building on the outcome of the WAR deliberations, and in agreement with the industrial WAR members, a consolidated advice is formulated by the Catalisti and VLAIO representatives and presented to the Moonshot Governance Board (MGB).
The MGB then makes a selection of promising project proposals. On the basis of the WAR ranking, the MGB can also implement a prioritization if required. Finally, the MGB presents its selection of project proposals to the Beslissingscomité bij het Fonds voor Innoveren en Ondernemen (HBC). Here, a final funding decision is made. If approved by the HBC, the ESI project proposal officially becomes a Moonshot project.