How Belgian Companies Can Use NACE Codes to Find Relevant Grants

Many grant programs are broader than one industry, but still narrower than the entire economy. NACE codes help classify the company activity in a structured way.

That makes them useful as a filtering tool even when they are not the only eligibility criterion.

In Belgium, NACE codes are assigned at company registration and recorded in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (KBO/BCE). They directly affect which grant programs appear as relevant matches.

A matching engine should not rely only on NACE code. Region, company size, legal form, age, and project type also matter.

Still, NACE code is one of the strongest first-pass signals when comparing many programs.

For example, a company with a NACE code in manufacturing might see VLAIO investment subsidies that a services company would not, even in the same region and of the same size.

Without activity filters, businesses end up reading many irrelevant grant pages. With NACE-based filtering, the shortlist gets cleaner much earlier.

That means less browsing and better attention on the strongest-fit programs.

Companies with multiple NACE codes should check grants against each activity separately, as different codes may unlock different programs across Flanders, Brussels, or Wallonia.

BelGrant combines NACE signals with region, company size, and grant rules to rank grants more realistically.

It is not a replacement for official verification, but it is a strong way to reduce search noise.

Try the eligibility quiz to see how NACE-based filtering works in practice with your company profile.