Fund for mental health research

Greater focus and funding for mental health research 

Mental health research still receives significantly less funding than research into physical illnesses, despite its major impact on individuals and society. Moreover, most available resources are directed toward fundamental research, while social and practice-based sciences remain underfunded. This creates a clear gap between the focus of researchers and the real-world needs of patients, families, and care providers. 

Through its Fund for Mental Health Research, the King Baudouin Foundation is committed to making a lasting difference. The Fund supports sustainable, large-scale, high-quality research that helps bridge the gap between science and practice. Active involvement of patients and citizens is a key principle throughout all research activities. 

Mapping the Belgian research landscape 

As a first step, the Fund commissioned the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University to conduct a bibliometric analysis of Belgian research on mental health. The analysis covered all relevant publications from 2018 to 2021 authored by researchers affiliated with at least one Belgian institution. The results of this study can be consulted here, along with the methodology. An update of the data is expected in 2026. 

What matters to those directly affected? 

Next, in collaboration with the Centre for Contextual Psychiatry (KU Leuven), a survey was conducted among 60 patients, relatives, and care providers. Together, they identified more than 700 unanswered research questions. These were clustered and refined into just over 100, then submitted to a panel of 35 patients, relatives, care professionals, researchers, and policymakers. The panel ranked the questions by relevance and urgency and refined the list to 24 research questions. 

In a series of three workshops, the list was further narrowed down to the top 10 priority research questions. These ten will form the basis for the Fund’s first project call, set to launch in the autumn. A budget of €1.6 million has been allocated to this call.