Technology & innovation

TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

At VLIZ, we believe that Technology and Innovation are essential to tackle the current limited ability to make comprehensive observations in the world’s ocean and seas. There is an emerging need for ocean data to improve our understanding, management and sustainable use of the marine environment. We believe increased inclusion and further technological developments of inegrated observation networks, including Marine Autonomous Systems, will advance our capacity to measure the Essential Ocean Variables and fill important data gaps to advance our scientific knowledge and solve pressing scientific questions.

With as goal to advance marine science in Flanders, VLIZ is developping, co-ordinating and providing access to major platforms, observing systems and technical expertise. To this end VLIZ invests in instruments, technologies, sea going- and data platforms, and supporting research centres such as the Marine Robotics Centre and the Marine Observation Centre.

Technology @ VLIZ

Projecten

Eurofleets+

The project 'Eurofleets+', coordinated by MI (ireland), brings more than 20 scientific institutions together to take the next steps towards a coordinated European research fleet and associated infrastructure.

AQUARIUS

AQUARIUS provides access to a comprehensive and diverse suite of integrated research infrastructures to address challenges and explore opportunities for the long-term sustainability of our marine and freshwater ecosystems.VLIZ is offering Trans

Greenland Gradients

We have over the last 25 years made long-term environmental measurements in East Greenland, mostly in the Daneborg/Zackenberg area.

Sonarlogger

VLIZ developed the Sonarlogger, a new observation tool to monitor long-term changes on the seafloor.

Integration of the pCO2 sensor in the USV Adhemar

VLIZ has recently enhanced its Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) Adhemar with the integration of a high-precision pCO2 sensor, the Hagan Gen-X.

Blue economy Technology & innovation

Multidisciplinary approach and international collaboration are strengths of Belgian marine research

12/04/2025 - 08:47

Between 2008 and 2024, Belgian universities and research institutes published between 447 and 974 peer-reviewed papers each year, across 2,006 different scientific journals. This output is on a par with the larger marine institutes in our neighbouring countries. A growing share of these papers is open access, rising from about 34% in 2008 to a provisional high of 79% in 2023.