Last updated The RMM PIccard gondola.The FNRS III.
The National Fund for Scientific Research (NFSR) (Dutch: Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NFWO), French: Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS)) was once a government institution in Belgium for supporting scientific research until it was split into two separate organizations:
the French-speaking Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique – FNRS (F.R.S.–FNRS) for the French Community.
The task of the FWO and F.R.S.–FNRS is to stimulate the development of new knowledge in all scientific disciplines. The means to achieve this, is to finance excellent scientists and research projects after an inter-University competition and with an evaluation by foreign experts. The criterion for support is the scientific quality of the scientist and the research proposal, irrespective of scientific discipline.
Both institutions, the FWO and the F.R.S.–FNRS, are located in the same building at Egmontstraat 5 rue d'Egmont in B-1000 Brussels.
History
The National Fund for Scientific Research (NFSR) was founded on 2 June 1928 after a call by king Albert I of Belgium for more resources for scientific research. On 1 October 1927, in a speech at Cockerill in Seraing, King Albert I strongly emphasized the importance of scientific research to the economic development of Belgium. He repeated his appeal for more resources, on 26 November 1927, in a speech to the Academy. This led to the creation within the University Foundation of the National Fund for Scientific Research on 2 June 1928. The new institute was led by Emile Francqui.
Financial support initially came from the public, and from the Solvay family that gave 100 million Belgian francs. Financial contributions from the state were not needed until 1947. Today, part of the funding still comes from non-governmental sources, such as from the charitable television station Télévie.
The NFSR was the first Belgian organization to finance fundamental scientific research. Among the earliest projects funded were the stratosphere flights of professor Auguste Piccard. The FNRS-1 was a balloon that set a world altitude record. The NFSR also funded the FNRS-2, which was the first ever bathyscaphe built.
Auguste Antoine Piccard was a Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer, known for his record-breaking helium-filled balloon flights, with which he studied the Earth's upper atmosphere. Piccard was also known for his invention of the first bathyscaphe, FNRS-2, with which he made a number of unmanned dives in 1948 to explore the ocean's depths.
A bathyscaphe is a free-diving self-propelled deep-sea submersible, consisting of a crew cabin similar to a bathysphere, but suspended below a float rather than from a surface cable, as in the classic bathysphere design.
The Université libre de Bruxelles, abbreviated ULB, is a French-speaking private research university in Brussels, Belgium.
The European Science Foundation (ESF) is an association of 11 member organizations devoted to scientific research in 8 European countries. ESF is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organisation that promotes the highest quality science in Europe. It was established in 1974 and its offices are located in Strasbourg, France (headquarters).
The University of Liège, or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301–350 category worldwide according to Times Higher Education, 451st by QS World University Rankings, and between the 201th and 300th place by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. More than 2000 people, academics, scientists and technicians, are involved in research of a wide variety of subjects from basic research to applied research.
The FNRS-2 was the first bathyscaphe. It was created by Auguste Piccard. Work started in 1937 but was interrupted by World War II. The deep-diving submarine was finished in 1948. The bathyscaphe was named after the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), the funding organization for the venture. FNRS also funded the FNRS-1 which was a balloon that set a world altitude record, also built by Piccard. The FNRS-2 set world diving records, besting those of the bathyspheres, as no unwieldy cable was required for diving. It was in turn bested by a more refined version of itself, the bathyscaphe Trieste.
The Flemish institute for technological research, is an independent Flemish research organisation that provides scientific advice and technological innovations that facilitate the transition to a sustainable society, and this in the areas of energy, chemistry, materials, health and land use.
The Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology was a Flemish agency between 1991 and 2015. It was an externally autonomized agency of the Flemish Government, in charge of innovation policy in Flanders and located in the Ellipse-Building in Brussels.
The FNRS-1 was a balloon, built by Auguste Piccard, that set a world altitude record. It was named after the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, which funded the balloon.
Émile Francqui was a Belgian soldier, diplomat, business man and philanthropist.
Marc, Baron Henneaux is a Belgian theoretical physicist and professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) who was born in Brussels on 5 March 1955.
The Artois-Baillet Latour Foundation is a Belgian non-profit organization which was founded on 1 March 1974.
The Flemish Council for Science and Innovation, previously known as the Flemish Council for Science Policy is the advisory body of the Flemish Government and the Flemish Parliament for science and technology policy. The VRWB provides advice concerning science and technology policy on its own initiative or on request. It provides recommendations, conducts investigations and provides its opinion on science and technology for Flanders. Dirk Boogmans is the Chairman of the Flemish Council for Science and Innovation. In 2016, it was abolished and reformed as the Flemish Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurialism.
Science and technology in Wallonia, the southern region of Belgium (Europe), is well developed with the presence of several universities and research institutes.
The Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, known by the acronym BELSPO, is the federal government body responsible for research policy in Belgium. It designs and implements research programmes and networks and manages the participation of Belgium in European and international organisations. BELSPO supervises Belgian federal scientific organisations.
The Institute for the Encouragement of Scientific Research and Innovation of Brussels or ISRIB promotes scientific research and technological innovation in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium within companies, universities and higher education institutes within the region. It provides support to both profit-oriented research and non-profit-oriented-research.
Science and technology in Brussels, the central region of Belgium (Europe), is well developed with the presence of several universities and research institutes.
The Research Foundation – Flanders is a Belgian public research council, based in Brussels. The Flemish research council aims to sponsor ground-breaking research and innovation. Much of this work involves supporting researchers and undertakings in association with the universities and institutes of Flanders, including Ghent University, University of Leuven, University of Antwerp and Free University of Brussels, among others.
Conny Clara Aerts, born 26 January 1966, is a Belgian (Flemish) professor in astrophysics. She specialises in asteroseismology. She is associated with KU Leuven, where she is the director of the Institute of Astronomy, and Radboud University, where she leads the Chair in the Astroseismology group. In 2012, she became the first woman to be awarded the Francqui Prize in the category of Science & Technology.
Isabelle Thomas is a professor of geography at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and research director of the National Fund for Scientific Research. She is member of the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE)
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