Belgium’s DEFRA 2027 Calls Postponed: What It Means for Defence Research Applicants

by | Nov 4, 2026 | Defence & Security, Commentary, Publications

Belgium's DEFRA 2027 Calls Postponed: What It Means for Defence Research Applicants

Disclosure: Beyond the Horizon ISSG follows the DEFRA programme and may apply to future calls.

Belgium has postponed its main national defence research calls. The announcement came one day after the Prime Minister offered his resignation over a failed budget. No official body has linked the two events.

This post explains why we think they are connected. It also explains what the link says about the way Europe pays for defence research.

On 3 November 2026, NCP Flanders announced that the launch of the 2027 calls for proposals under the Defence-related Research Action (DEFRA) programme has been postponed until Spring 2027. The information days planned for 23 and 24 November 2026 were postponed as well. They will announce a new timetable later.

The announcement gives no reason. Where we read between the lines, we say so.

What DEFRA is, and why it matters

DEFRA is Belgium's national defence research programme. It is run by the Royal Higher Institute for Defence (RHID) together with the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO). RHID manages the programme and funds the selected projects. BELSPO organises and manages the calls.

The programme is open to the whole Belgian research community. BELSPO says it prefers a triple helix composition, which means that academia and industry work on the project together. It supports the aim of the Ministry of Defence to spend 2 per cent of its total defence effort on research and technology by 2030.

The yearly calls have grown quickly since 2021.

Call

Budget

Themes

1st call (2021)

€1 million

3

2nd call (2022)

€6.4 million

4

3rd call (2023)

€8.8 million

5

4th call (2024)

€12 million

6

5th call (2025)

€20 million

9

6th call (2026)

€26 million

10

Source: BELSPO DEFRA calls page. The table covers the yearly framework calls only. DEFRA also runs separate thematic and open calls, which are larger than the figures above suggest. The NGCAT call of 2024 alone was worth €60 million across 4 themes, and the open call on Pulsed Directed Energy Effectors is worth €5 million across 2 themes.

The 2026 round was not a single call. Three calls ran in parallel: the 6th DEFRA call with €26 million, a Human Factors Open Call with €4 million, and a Space Call with €16 million. That is €46 million for the round. The information days in January 2026 covered all three.

We do not yet know how the 2027 round will be organised. No list of calls, themes or budgets for 2027 has been published.

The political crisis in the background

On Monday 2 November 2026, Prime Minister Bart De Wever offered his resignation to King Philippe. Budget talks inside his five-party coalition had broken down overnight. The Royal Palace confirmed the resignation but said the King has not yet decided whether to accept it. He started talks with the leaders of the coalition parties on Tuesday and will see the Prime Minister again on Friday 6 November.

The King said he regrets that no agreement was reached on a credible budget. He also said that the country cannot afford a long political crisis.

The numbers behind the deadlock are large. The government has been trying to find €10 billion in savings by 2029. In its Spring 2026 Economic Forecast, published in May, the European Commission expected the deficit to stay at 5.2 per cent of GDP in 2026 and rise to 5.4 per cent in 2027, partly because defence and interest spending are going up. That forecast is six months older than the crisis. Public debt is above 110 per cent of GDP.

If there is no budget by 31 December, Belgium has to work with provisional twelfths. Under that rule the state may spend only one twelfth of the previous budget each month. It keeps the lights on. It does not pay for new programmes.

Why a government crisis can stop a research call

The link between the two events is not only about money in general. There is one official step that a DEFRA call cannot skip.

Every DEFRA call needs a decision by the Council of Ministers. Before the 2026 round, BELSPO wrote that the sixth call would be launched subject to approval by the Council of Ministers. The same step appears in earlier years. In April 2022 and again in January 2023, BELSPO announced that the Council of Ministers had approved the Defence Science and Technology Research Programme, including DEFRA, and that the call was open as a result.

This is not a formality. The calls are funded from the federal budget, and each round is approved as part of the yearly defence research programme.

A government that offers its resignation does not change status at once. It moves into what Belgium calls current affairs, or lopende zaken, when the King accepts the resignation. That has not happened yet. In that status, a government keeps the state running and leaves new policies and long-term decisions to the next government.

The chain does not depend on what the King decides on Friday.

  1. A DEFRA call needs a decision by the Council of Ministers.
  2. A government whose own survival is unresolved is in a weak position to take that decision, whether it is in current affairs or still negotiating a budget it may not win.
  3. Without that decision, the 2027 calls cannot be launched.
  4. Information days in November, for calls that cannot open, would serve no purpose.

One objection is fair, and we should state it ourselves. A decision of this size is not taken in a single day. Information days need speakers, a venue and registrations, and a call cycle involves RHID, BELSPO and the Ministry of Defence. So the timing of 2 and 3 November proves nothing on its own.

There are three readings. The change may have been under discussion already, and the budget collapse made it final. The decision to publish it may have been taken on 3 November because the political picture had changed. Or the decision may have been taken for reasons of its own, and the date is a coincidence.

The first two put the crisis in the chain. The third does not, and nothing we have seen rules it out. Only the date of the decision, and a reason from the bodies that took it, would settle this.

The length of the delay fits a political reading. Spring 2027 is roughly the period in which a new government, or a new budget, could be in place. It fits a planning reading just as well, which is why we do not lean on it.

The approval rule is also not an absolute bar. A government in current affairs can still act where a decision is urgent or already prepared. What the rule does is make a new discretionary decision harder to take, and easier to put off.

A second possible reason: the new ODIN programme

The budget crisis is not the only possible explanation. The way Belgium pays for defence research changed in an important way during 2026.

Belgium launched ODIN, a defence innovation programme, in January 2026. Early reporting put it at €3.6 billion over ten years. When Defence Minister Theo Francken set out the detail in June, Belga reported €3.7 billion for 2026 to 2035. ODIN sits inside the Defence, Industry and Research Strategy (DIRS), developed since 2022 by RHID and the Federal Public Service Economy. Under that strategy, about €350 million a year goes to research, innovation and industrial production.

ODIN is already committing money. On 30 October 2026, four days before the DEFRA notice, Defence and the research centre imec signed a five-year partnership. imec receives €10 million a year from ODIN, about €50 million in total, for work on secure communications and on compact radar and laser systems against drones. The imec press release lists General Steven Lauwereys, head of ODIN, among those present at the signing.

So DEFRA is no longer the only national channel for defence research money. A redesign of DEFRA to fit inside ODIN is a realistic second reason for the delay, and it may work together with the first one. A crisis can turn a change that was already under discussion into an easy decision.

How we read the evidence

No official reason has been published. What follows is our assessment, not a confirmed fact.

The political situation is the strongest explanation. The approval step is documented, the timing fits, and the length of the delay matches the time a new government, or a new budget, would need.

The changes around ODIN are a serious second reason. The two may also work together.

An administrative or planning reason cannot be ruled out. A postponement of several months is also what a reorganised call cycle would look like.

Here is the test we would apply. Published changes to DEFRA's governance, themes or approval arrangements would strengthen the ODIN explanation. Keeping to the spring timetable after a budget agreement would not settle anything on its own, because ordinary administrative lead times would look the same.

One argument should be used with care. The fact that BELSPO has not posted a notice proves nothing. NCP Flanders published the postponement first, and BELSPO's own news archive has not been updated since December 2024. The open call on Pulsed Directed Energy Effectors is also still listed as open, although its deadline for full proposals was 16 October 2026.

The question the week raises: promises made against decisions still to be taken

One week in Belgium put two ways of paying for defence research side by side. It does not prove a rule. It raises a question worth asking.

On 30 October, ODIN signed a five-year contract with imec worth €10 million a year. On 3 November, the launch of the 2027 DEFRA calls was postponed, and their budget has not been announced. Same country, same ministry, same week, two different outcomes.

A promise already made and a decision still to be taken are not in the same position when a government falls. Caretaker rules let a government carry on with what is already agreed, while new decisions wait for the next government.

We should be careful with that thought. The imec contract was signed before the crisis, so it shows what was already agreed, not what survives a crisis. Whether the difference in funding structure explains the DEFRA delay is not established. But it is the question the week puts on the table.

The question matters beyond Belgium, because the target behind DEFRA is a European one. EU member states agreed a benchmark in 2007: 2 per cent of defence spending on research and technology. They have not met it. The European Defence Agency's own figures put collective research and technology at 1.4 per cent of defence spending in 2023, rising to about 1.6 per cent in 2024. A target that rests on a yearly national decision is weakest in exactly the moments when defence research matters most.

There may also be a cost for the European pipeline. National projects are where Belgian teams build the track record they bring into European Defence Fund consortia, which support collaborative research and development. EDIP is a different instrument, aimed at industrial capacity. A delayed national round could leave Belgian partners out of step with EU call cycles. How much that matters depends on the particular call, its deadline and the readiness level it asks for.

What this means for applicants

The delay is not free. A later launch may complicate staffing, consortium planning and the timing of project starts. How much it costs depends on the revised application, award and start dates, and none of those has been published.

The notice covers the 2027 calls only. It announces no change to the 2026 round or to the open call on Pulsed Directed Energy Effectors, which are already under way. That is not a guarantee, and the status of other calls and awards is worth checking separately.

These are the dates to watch.

Date

What happens

Why it matters

6 November 2026

The King is expected to decide on the resignation

Refusal, acceptance with elections, or a new formula with the current parliament

31 December 2026

Deadline for the 2027 budget

Without a budget, interim spending rules would apply

Spring 2027

New indicative launch of the DEFRA 2027 calls

The revised timeline has not been published yet

Three practical points for the coming months.

  1. Take the call conditions from RHID and BELSPO. NCP Flanders published this notice first and is usually quicker, but the terms that bind an application come from the programme owners. Neither site is updated often, so check more than one.
  2. Keep the consortium and the technical scope flexible. Partner agreements take longer to settle than the description of the work, and both may need to change if the themes change.
  3. Do not assume 2026 carries over. The themes, budgets and eligibility conditions of the 2027 round have not been published.

One caution applies to the whole picture. The €10 billion concerns the federal budget as a whole. No cut to DEFRA has been announced, and no change to the 2030 research target. But a consolidation of that size is the setting in which future research budgets will be decided.

When the new timetable is published, we will come back to the subject with a new assessment.

Sources

All pages below were consulted on 4 November 2026.