News

Covenants between the government and VLIZ determine the institute's mission for the next five years. After an intensive preliminary phase consisting of an internal self-evaluation, an external evaluation and negotiations, the Government of Flanders approved a new covenant for the period 2022-2026 on 17 December 2021.

Just before Christmas, the Flemish government approved six covenants with Flemish research institutions – including the Flanders Marine Institute. The Flemish Minister for Science Policy, Innovation and Economy Hilde Crevits gives political priority to research with a societal impact: from climate impact on marine life, to better technologies in healthcare. With more than 33 million euros in...

Today, BELSPO, on behalf of the Federal Government, and the EWI Department – the Department for Economy, Science and Innovation – on behalf of the Flemish Government, signed an agreement framework regarding the deployment of their two research vessels. The framework regulates the reciprocity of the use of ship-time between Federal scientific institutions and Flemish scientific research centers. It...

Annually VLIZ reports on the status of marine research in Flanders and Belgium in the form of a policy informing brief, so keeping its finger on the pulse of this dynamic field of research. The most recent census maps the growing research capacity and their scientific output for the year 2020. The report also examines the strong international partnerships, the broad geographic focus of the...

During an economic and innovation mission of Flemish minister-president Jan Jambon, VLIZ signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Basque AZTI. This research centre has a strong marine expertise and is known for delivering cutting-edge products and technologies.

Mid October, the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) received endorsement by the UN Ocean Decade as a Project Action, entitled 'Above and Beyond – Completing the World Register of Marine Species (ABC WoRMS)'.

Flanders and VLIZ help building the great observation and information system of ICOS, that monitors all flows of greenhouse gases between atmosphere, land and ocean. The rapidly available and reliable data from 140 monitoring stations in 13 European countries now supports science and society in their efforts to become climate neutral.

Have you recently graduated as a bachelor or master with a thesis on a marine research topic? Or have you lately obtained a PhD in a marine scientific discipline in a country bordering the North Sea? Then you can apply for one of the three scientific prizes of the Flanders Marine Institute: the VLIZ Professional Bachelor Thesis Award 2021, the VLIZ Master Thesis Award 2021 or the VLIZ North Sea...

Students from 10 secondary schools from Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Ivory Coast, Cape Verde and Morocco contribute as citizen scientists to the international research project COLLECT. In addition to contributing to the knowledge on the distribution of plastic pollution on African beaches, the project also aims to promote local awareness about plastic waste.

Scientific research yields many different products, such as publications, datasets, software, patents, conference contributions and citizen science initiatives. VLIZ is convinced that the evaluation of the research output cannot be controlled solely by means of quantitative indicators, but that all aspects of the scientific research process (from the research question and methods to knowledge and...

On September 6th, 2021 EU Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginjus Sinkevicius paid a visit to the city of Ostend to familiarise himself with a number of local initiatives within the sustainable blue economy in Belgium. In the company of Flemish Minister of Economy, Innovation and Agriculture, Hilde Crevits, the EU Commissioner visited, among other things, the Marien...

The increasing presence of marine litter in the seas and ocean is one of the major societal challenges of our time. Public organisations, policy makers and the business community are all looking for solutions to tackle this urgent problem. Still, incentives for behavioral change and a smart policy remain the most effective measures to prevent litter from entering the environment. Preventing...

The latest edition of the Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) containing, 31 million quality controlled in situ observations from the period 1957-2021, shows how CO2 uptake by the global ocean has increased. The Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) and Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) – both supported by the Flanders’ government – also contribute to this community-driven database. Atlas-based...

The global ocean captures approximately 25% of the anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. However, this figure still entails large uncertainties. For the next two weeks, the global marine carbon observation community gathers with developers of relevant measuring systems and sensors in Ostend, Belgium for a large intercalibration exercise in the Marine Station Oostende of VLIZ. The European...

On Tuesday 22nd of June 2021, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice and the North Sea Vincent Van Quickenborne visited Ostend at the invitation of The Blue Cluster to get to know more about a number of exciting initiatives within the blue economy. The program included a visit to the VLIZ' Marine Robotics Centre and a demonstration of the uncrewed surface vehicle 'Adhemar'.

Today, the first sampling campaign in the framework of the brand new European Marine Omics Biodiversity Observation Network (EMO BON) takes place. The aim of the observation network is to ensure a steady, continuous generation of biodiversity data. EMO BON will ultimately provide Europe with a means to monitor and understand its marine biodiversity, and fill the current gaps in the European...

UN delivers the first-ever global assessment report after 7 years’ work by 109 experts in 35 countries – among them VLIZ researcher Maarten De Rijcke – creating a baseline to detect and gauge the changing distribution, frequency, and intensity of harmful, often poisonous algal blooms. Trends in the number of HAB events found to vary across regions. Overexploitation, however, acts as a natural...

ICOS, Integrated Carbon Observation System, announces that 12 more greenhouse gas measurement stations have passed the rigorous ICOS quality assurance process for standardised data production. The newly certified stations, among which the Flemish research vessel Simon Stevin, are located in seven out of 13 ICOS member countries, and in all three ICOS domains – atmosphere, ecosystem and ocean...