08 / 12 / 2020
With a BMRI grant, a PhD student or junior postdoc can develop a brilliant new idea. Here Loïc Piret, winner of a BMRI2019, during a sampling campaign in a Chilean fjord. Photo: © Loïc Piret
Membership fees, donations and sponsoring fuel VLIZ philanthropy – The Sea as a Good Cause. This allows us to fund every year some brilliant research ideas from PhD students and young postdocs. The Brilliant Marine Research Ideas (BMRI) can contribute to solving an interesting marine research question. VLIZ also offers marine / maritime companies the opportunity to sponsor a BMRI grant.
The total available budget to spend on BMRI grants in 2021 is 25.000 euros. For this edition, we received 5.000 euros in sponsorship from both DEME and Antea Group, companies active in the blue economy in Flanders.
As interest arose from marine researchers, we expanded the range of BMRI grants. From this edition onwards, in addition to PhD students also junior postdocs at Flemish universities or colleges can also compete for a grant. On top, doctoral students from the south, but with a demonstrable link with a marine research group in Flanders, can also apply. Check the details of the various calls for proposals on the VLIZ website.
Topics eligible for the BMRI grants include pollution, ocean and human health, marine biodiversity, climate change, ocean-related disasters and marine explorations. DEME wishes to sponsor a scholarship linked to engineering and sciences, fisheries and aquaculture sciences, economic sciences or biological sciences. Antea Group prefers to sponsor research related to hydraulic engineering and hydrodynamics of coastal zones and estuaries, as well as microplastic research in estuaries.
The grants of up to 5.000 euros should be used to help young marine scientists in their lab and/or fieldwork, data acquisition and analysis, visits to other institutes to use specialized facilities, purchase of equipment or software necessary for a particular analysis, etc.
More information and application forms for the various calls for proposals can be found on the VLIZ website: