LSI Projects
Later Stage Innovation (LSI) projects aim to further support and accelerate research that has already proven its feasibility at low TRL.
LSI projects seek to bridge the gap between experimental process/product development and industrial implementation. LSI projects are important instruments to accelerate the future market introduction of new and innovative products, processes and services that significantly contribute to the overall Moonshot goals. LSI projects should also lead to greater economic and social added value and more robust international valorisation of knowledge generated by Flemish research and knowledge institutes.
In practice, LSI projects provide support to research and knowledge institutes for funding infrastructure, knowledge build-up and de-risking of the intended technology.
LSI projects have a max. duration of 36 months with a max. budget of 2 million euro at a funding percentage of 100%. As of the 2025 call, LSI projects are given priority over ESI projects, with a dedicated yearly budget of €5 million.
For more information about the available project types, contact the moonshot
catalisti.be (Moonshot team).
Evaluation of LSI Projects
The evaluation of Later Stage Innovation (LSI) project proposals occurs in 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 LSI project proposal is provided to the members of the WAR, comprising both industrial and academic representatives. All WAR members assess the project proposal against LSI-specific criteria and the overall Moonshot targets, taking its contribution to the Moonshot roadmap into account. On the basis of the project proposal, 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, which is 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 Flemish government, which makes a final funding decision. If approved by the government, the LSI project proposal officially becomes a Moonshot project.