01 / 03 / 2022
Photo: ULCO
Two of the important marine research institutes located on the Channel/North Sea coast – the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) and the Institut des Sciences de la Mer et du Littoral (ISML) of the French (ULCO) – signed this Tuesday 1 March 2022 a partnership agreement.
This agreement aims to strengthen exchanges in the fields of research, training and expertise as well as the dissemination of scientific knowledge and culture around maritime issues and challenges, in particular along the coasts of the English Channel and the North Sea.
Created in 1999, the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) is the coordination- and information platform for marine scientific research in Flanders. VLIZ promotes the creation and excellence of marine knowledge through interdisciplinary research and initiatives on the ocean, seas, coasts and marine estuaries.
The institute works in close collaboration with other marine research groups, civil society, public policies and with industrial partners in Flanders, Belgium. It is committed to a process of international collaboration, as evidenced by the partnership with ULCO.
ULCO, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, is also a major player in the field of research and training in marine science. With its Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences (ISML) created in September 2020, it brings together a community of academic, institutional and socio-economic actors.
Installed on the Boulogne-sur-Mer campus (first French fishing port and first European centre for the processing of seafood products), the ISML aims in particular to promote and strengthen the synergies between research, training and the demands from the socio-economic stakeholders in the fields of marine sciences and particularly on seafood products.
This new partnership will make the two institutions privileged partners who will engage to pool their networks of local, national or international partners for a good promotion of their joint research activities and common expertise.
In concrete terms, the two institutes will commit, for example, to coordinate their research campaigns and to deepen collaboration on observation and knowledge of the marine environment through in situ measurements, remote sensing and the use of sensors and robotics. This will lead to a better understanding of the functioning of ecosystems, their evolution under the effects of climate change and anthropogenic pressures, as well as a better knowledge of the dynamics of the coastal waters of the English Channel and the southern North Sea.