Grants for MedTech Companies in Belgium 2026

Medtech and life sciences companies in Belgium operate at the intersection of healthcare regulation, scientific innovation, and commercial scaling. This means the grant landscape they navigate is fundamentally different from what a typical technology startup or manufacturing SME would encounter. Regulatory timelines are longer, R&D costs are higher, and the path from prototype to market approval involves multiple stages that each carry their own funding needs.

Belgium is uniquely positioned to support this sector. The country hosts a dense ecosystem of biotech clusters, university hospitals, and public research institutions that actively collaborate with private companies. Flanders Bio, the life sciences cluster in Flanders, alone connects more than 500 organisations working in health innovation. Brussels and Wallonia each maintain their own health-focused funding tracks through Innoviris and SPW respectively.

The challenge for most medtech founders is not a lack of available funding — it is that the information is fragmented across regional agencies, federal tax programs, and European calls for proposals. A company developing a Class II medical device in Ghent may be eligible for VLAIO innovation subsidies, the federal R&D wage tax exemption, and Horizon Europe health cluster funding simultaneously, but discovering and combining these requires structured research.

This guide walks through the main grant sources available to medtech companies in Belgium in 2026, explains who qualifies, outlines typical amounts, and highlights the key differences between medtech-specific and standard innovation grants in Belgium.

Innoviris, the Brussels-Capital Region's agency for research and innovation funding, runs dedicated health innovation calls that are particularly relevant for medtech companies based in Brussels. These programs fund clinical validation studies, proof-of-concept projects, and translational research that bridges academic findings and commercial health products.

The Industrial Research Projects (IRP) and Experimental Development grants from Innoviris can cover between 25 and 60 percent of eligible project costs, depending on company size and the nature of the research. For medtech SMEs, the effective subsidy rate is often in the 35 to 50 percent range. Projects must demonstrate a clear innovation component and a pathway toward health outcomes or medical product development.

Innoviris also supports collaborative projects between companies and Brussels-based universities or hospitals. These joint calls can provide additional funding for clinical study phases, which is one of the most capital-intensive stages for medtech companies. The collaboration requirement is not just a formality — projects with hospital partners tend to receive higher evaluation scores.

One important distinction is that Innoviris health calls sometimes operate on fixed submission deadlines rather than rolling applications. Checking the current call calendar on the Innoviris grants page before starting your application is essential to avoid missing a window.

VLAIO (Vlaanderen Innovatie & Ondernemen) is the primary funding agency for companies in Flanders, and it offers several grant lines that are directly applicable to medtech. The VLAIO R&D Subsidies program funds both feasibility studies and experimental development projects, with subsidy rates of 25 to 60 percent depending on the project phase and company size.

For medtech companies specifically, VLAIO's innovation subsidies are well suited to funding the development and testing of new medical devices, diagnostic tools, or health software platforms. Feasibility study grants can cover the cost of evaluating whether a medical technology concept is scientifically and commercially viable, while development grants support the build-out, prototyping, and pre-clinical validation stages.

VLAIO also administers the SME Growth Subsidy (KMO-groeisubsidie), which can be used by medtech SMEs to hire strategic profiles — such as a regulatory affairs manager or a clinical trial coordinator — that are critical for scaling. This grant covers up to 50 percent of the salary cost for up to one year, with a maximum of 25,000 euros per hire.

The Flanders Bio network works closely with VLAIO to help medtech companies identify the right programs. If your company is developing a medical device or health tech product in Flanders, combining a VLAIO innovation subsidy with the federal R&D tax credit is one of the most common and effective funding strategies.

The Belgian federal government offers one of Europe's most attractive R&D tax incentive packages, and medtech companies are among the primary beneficiaries. The partial exemption from payment of withholding tax on R&D personnel wages allows qualifying companies to retain up to 80 percent of the professional withholding tax on salaries of researchers holding a qualifying degree — typically a master's or PhD in engineering, biomedical sciences, pharmacy, or medicine.

For a medtech company with a team of five researchers, this exemption alone can represent tens of thousands of euros in annual savings. The incentive is automatic once the company is registered with BELSPO (the Belgian Science Policy Office) and the qualifying conditions are met. Companies do not need to apply for each individual researcher — the exemption applies to all eligible staff.

In addition to the wage tax exemption, Belgium offers the Innovation Income Deduction (IID), which allows companies to deduct up to 85 percent of qualifying innovation income from their taxable base. For medtech companies that hold patents on medical devices, diagnostic algorithms, or pharmaceutical processes, this deduction can reduce the effective corporate tax rate on innovation income to below 5 percent.

The combination of the R&D wage exemption and the Innovation Income Deduction makes Belgium one of the most fiscally attractive countries in Europe for life sciences R&D. These federal incentives can be stacked with regional grants from VLAIO or Innoviris, provided there is no double funding of the same expense line.

Horizon Europe, the EU's framework programme for research and innovation, allocates significant funding to its Health Cluster (Cluster 1). Belgian medtech companies can participate as consortium partners or, in some calls, as individual applicants. Grants under Cluster 1 fund projects addressing major health challenges including digital health tools, personalised medicine, infectious disease diagnostics, and medical device innovation.

Typical Horizon Europe health projects receive between 1 and 5 million euros in total funding, with Belgian partners receiving their proportional share. The funding rate for SMEs is 70 percent of eligible costs for innovation actions and 100 percent for research and innovation actions, making it one of the most generous grant mechanisms available.

The European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator is another important EU instrument for medtech companies. It provides blended finance — a grant of up to 2.5 million euros combined with equity investment of up to 15 million euros — specifically targeting deep-tech and health innovation startups that need capital to cross the valley of death between clinical validation and market entry.

Applying for EU funding is more complex and competitive than regional programs, but the amounts are substantially higher. Belgian medtech companies that have already secured VLAIO or Innoviris grants for earlier project stages are well positioned to apply for Horizon Europe funding to support clinical trials, multi-country validation, or CE marking processes.

Most medtech grant programs in Belgium require the applying company to be registered in Belgium, to meet the EU SME criteria (for SME-specific calls), and to be working on a project with a clear health innovation component. The definition of medtech is broad — it covers medical devices of all classes, in-vitro diagnostics, digital health applications, health data platforms, pharmaceutical manufacturing technology, and biotechnology products.

The key difference between medtech grants and standard innovation grants lies in the evaluation criteria. Medtech applications are assessed not only on technical innovation and commercial potential but also on regulatory pathway feasibility, clinical evidence strategy, and health impact. A medtech grant application that does not address how the product will achieve regulatory approval (CE marking under MDR, for instance) is unlikely to score well.

Grant amounts for medtech projects also tend to be higher than for standard innovation projects, reflecting the longer development cycles and higher validation costs. A typical VLAIO medtech feasibility study grant might range from 50,000 to 200,000 euros, while an experimental development grant can reach 500,000 euros or more. Innoviris and Horizon Europe grants can exceed 1 million euros for larger collaborative projects.

If you are unsure which programs your medtech company qualifies for, BelGrant's Lucas AI assistant can help you identify the best-fit grants based on your company profile, development stage, and target market. You can also start with the eligibility quiz to get a quick overview of your options.