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 subsidising 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 subsidy percentage of 100%.
For more information about the available project types, contact the Moonshot team.
Evaluation of LSI Projects
The evaluation of Later Stage Innovation (LSI) project proposals occurs in three phases.
First Phase
Project consortia can register their project idea for Moonshot by submitting a “Motivated Application Form” (MAF). In a next step, all MAFs are discussed and a consolidated advice is drawn up for each of the MAFs by the WAR. The final decision regarding the selection of project ideas based on the MAFs lies with the governing bodies of the respective spearhead clusters which take into account the consolidated WAR advice. For MOTs 1-2-3, the decision is taken by the Moonshot industrial expert committees of MOTs 1-2-3 (composed of the companies of the Catalisti innovation committee with additional companies of the steel and petrochemical sector). For MOT4, the decision is taken by the Flux50 Board of Directors after review by the Moonshot industrial expert committee of MOT4 (composed of the companies of the Catalisti innovation committee with additional companies of the energy sector). After this first phase, the respective decisions are communicated to the applicants, including the underlying reasoning and, if positive, an overview of the next steps.
Second phase
In the second phase, the full project proposal is provided to the industrial WAR members, collectively known as the ProjectWAR. The ProjectWAR assesses the project proposal against LSI-specific criteria and the overall Moonshot targets, taking its contribution to the Moonshot roadmap into account. Questions WAR members might have are submitted to and answered by the consortium in writing. On the basis of the project proposal, each industrial WAR member formulates an individual advice. Then, all advices are discussed by the ProjectWAR in group until a consensus is reached. The ProjectWAR then ranks all submitted project proposals. In agreement with the ProjectWAR, a consolidated advice is formulated by the Catalisti and VLAIO representatives, which is presented to the Moonshot Governance Board (MGB).
Third phase
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.