On Friday the 22nd 2006 the cooperation agreement between Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) and the Fisheries department of the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO-Fisheries department) will be signed by Paul Breyne, governor of the Province of West-Flanders and Chairman of the General Assembly of VLIZ, and Erik Van Bockstaele, general administrator of ILVO. This agreement formalizes a far-reaching collaboration concerning data exchange and data management.
The agreement is the result of a long process of rapprochement between the two institutes; a process that started since the erection of the VLIZ in 1999. At that moment the Flanders Marine Institute was ordered by the Flemish and provincial governments to conclude a cooperation agreement with the (then still Federal) Sea Fisheries Department of the Center of Agricultural Research (DvZ-CLO). The consultation was accelerated since the institute was defederalized and was placed under the responsibility of the Flemish government. At the beginning of 2006, the CLO was assimilated in the new Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (LVO)
Both institutes are authorities in their field of competence and have complementary activities. They now unite their forces, and their collaboration will have a surplus-value. The Flanders Marine Institute, not performing marine research itself, is thé coordination and information platform for marine scientific research in Flanders. The fisheries experts of ILVO perform research and monitoring in order to contribute to a sustainable exploitation of marine natural resources, conservation of the marine ecosystem as a habitat for these natural resources and are responsible for the quality control and guarantee of sea food products from the southern bight of the North Sea. Through the cooperation agreement the two institutes will become privileged partners in the public outreach of research results, the development and management of databases for monitoring data, biological fisheries data and literature.
VLIZ will give concrete support in the set-up and documentation of the databases, as well as in the making the ILVO-Fisheries datasets more accessible. VLIZ will serve as a data center and data archive of the monitoring data of ILVO-Fisheries. VLIZ will function as a ‘primary or secondary data warehouse’ for its national and international data delivery commitments. VLIZ will examine how to increase the visibility of the ILVO-Fisheries publications and to incorporate the library of the institute in the sea-library collection of VLIZ. ILVO-Fisheries will support VLIZ by exchange of its scientific expertise. Both parties can, when meaningful, organize joint colloquia and workshop.
| Press conference: | ILVO-Visserij, Ankerstraat 1, B-8400 Oostende |
| Date, hour: | Fridy 22nd of September 2006, 10.00-11.00 uur, followed by a drink |
| Contact: | Jan Seys (0478/37 64 13; info@vliz.be) |