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Organisation

Flanders Marine Institute

Knowledge Institution

Lifecycle:1 Jan 1999 →  Today
Organisation profile:Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) is an autonomous institute with the legal status of a non-profit organisation and was founded in 1999. VLIZ is the coordination and information platform for marine scientific research in Flanders, is a node for marine and coastal research and acts as an international contact point.

The tasks of VLIZ can be summarised as follows:
- Coordination and management of research infrastructure: coordination of ship time on the RV Simon Stevin and the management of common research equipment and infrastructure;
- Management of the VLIZ Marine Data and Information Centre (VMDC): integration in international networks and contribution to the development of international standards for the management and exchange of data and information;
- The VLIZ library with marine scientific and coastal literature and multimedia;
- A platform to promote a network of marine scientists and stakeholders, to advance the expertise in Flanders and to provide information to Belgian and foreign stakeholders;
- Supporting a sustainable and scientifically underpinned policy for the coast and sea, by providing policy-relevant scientific information to coast-and-sea-professionals, scientists, policymakers and specific target groups;
- Management of an info desk (communication and education) providing scientifically underpinned information to the general public, professionals, policy makers, teachers, etc.

VLIZ participates in numerous national and international marine research projects, has around 30 cooperation agreements with national academic institutes, administrations and foreign institutes. Furthermore, the organisation is a member of numerous national and international networks in the marine scientific field.
Keywords:Data acquisition, Data collections, Data processing, Education, Environmental sensitizing, Information centres, Libaries, Marine scientific research, Research vessels