Indicators to be qualitatively reported on

1. Impact trajectories on the basis of knowledge valorisation monitored by VLIZ

For 2023, VLIZ selected three impact trajects that will be documented separately, i.e. the Compendium for Coast and Sea, marine data and research into plastic litter. See the section 'Impact trajectories' of this annual report. 

2. Annual update of the inventory of the marine research landscape in Flanders (Compendium for Coast and Sea).

Every year, the marine research landscape in Flanders and Belgium is surveyed by means of a fixed methodology. In December 2023, the current situation was reported in the ‘2023 Marine Research and Innovation Indicator Report’, within the context of the Compendium for Coast and Sea (see Highlight 4).

The 2023 inventory demonstrates that there are 135 marine research groups (MRGs) in Belgium. This is a significant increase compared to the 82 MRGs present in the initial 2013 inventory. Every year, the MRGs publish between 600 and 900 marine peer-reviewed publications; this figure is comparable to the output of larger marine institutes in the neighbouring countries. About 75% of these publications are included in open access journals, compared to 40%¹ in 2008.

Belgian marine research also has a strong international orientation. In nearly 80% of the publications, the research was conducted outside the Belgian part of the North Sea and more than 80% were the result of international collaboration (so-called international co-publications). This international collaboration mostly takes place with the neighbouring countries and the US, but the network of our marine researchers covers no fewer than 163 countries. In approximately 25% of cases (2008-2022), a (research) vessel was deployed for data collection, with a total of 328 different (research) vessels from 49 countries.

With this annual update and inventory of the marine research landscape, VLIZ intends to inform marine and maritime (scientific) policymakers, the marine research community and other stakeholders.

¹This figure is updated annually as more and more scientific journals retrospectively make their publications available online.

3. Most up-to-date citation indicators, calculated on the basis of citations of peer-reviewed VLIZ publications within a timeframe of 3 years, i.e. N-1, N-2 and N-3 for publications from year N-3. 

These are the Relative Citation Rate (RCR) and the Normalised Mean Citation Rate (NMCR). In addition, the VLIZ publications are also benchmarked by ECOOM against the global standard by means of the Characteristic Scores and Scales (CSS) method.