News

With the latest edition of the European Atlas of the Seas, citizens across Europe now have access to stunning sea charts and interactive ocean information in their own language, making the Atlas an even more accessible and useful educational tool. From now on, visitors can navigate the Atlas in the 24 official languages of the European Union and explore a wide range of popular marine topics such as tourism, litter, the environment, energy, aquaculture and many more.

The Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) recently launched the renewed ScheldeMonitor portal. On this platform you will find a wide range of data, visualizations, maps and literature on all kinds of Scheldt-related themes. The new portal now also offers many possibilities for non-experts with an interest in the Scheldt.

The Environment Department of the Government of Flanders, together with the team of Vlaamse Bouwmeester and various government agencies, has brought together the various climate and environmental factors that play a role at the coast in a handy guide. The booklet makes a plea not to take a fragmentary approach to the climate challenges on our coast, but to continue to look for solutions in an integrated way.

The amount of plastic in rivers and the ocean is increasing all the time. Within the frame of the PLUXIN project, Flemish scientists, entrepreneurs and The Blue Cluster are joining forces to map the plastics transported to the sea via ports and rivers, using innovative and automatic detection methods. The ultimate goal is to provide solutions and to set up pioneering commercial initiatives in Flanders in the plastic sanitation of water and sediments.

Within the BlueBio ERA-Net COFUND funding programme, a call has been launched for pre-proposals aimed at the supply systems in the Blue Bioeconomy. Candidate projects within this call should focus on identifying new and improving existing ways to market natural products and services and finding new ways to create value in the Blue Bioeconomy. Submitting pre-proposal is possible until 14 September 2020.

The recently launched Horizon 2020 project UNITED is investigating how the scarce space at sea can be used by multiple users. For five existing demonstration pilots in three European seas, the technical, regulatory, economic, social and environmental requirements and impacts are being investigated if multiple commercial activities want to develop there together. An interactive webinar on 3 June (12:00-14:00) will introduce you to the project and the pilot sites.

Globally, the economic consequences of the current corona crisis are an integral part of daily news reports. Just as the corona crisis is having a major impact on all kinds of land and airborne sectors, it is also having an impact on the 'blue economy', which globally accounts for 2.5 trillion dollars on an annual basis (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2015). In Flanders, the Blue Economy accounts for a turnover of 48.36 billion euros and employs 153,805 FTEs (study IDEA consult 2019 commissioned by De Blauwe Cluster).

On Friday 20 November 2020 (afternoon), the Blue Cluster and the Flanders Marine Institute VLIZ will jointly organise the Blue Economy Science Summit of BESS 2020 - the new name for the annual meeting Marine Science meets Maritime Industry. At this event in Ostend, companies and knowledge institutions come up with innovative ideas for collaboration between science and marine/maritime industry.

De pandemie van het coronavirus heeft een grote invloed op ons leven, vooral wat betreft de toegankelijkheid van de publieke buitenruimtes. In België geldt momenteel een semi-lockdown. We kunnen nog steeds even naar buiten, zolang we de maatregelen opgelegd door de overheid in acht nemen. Maar wat doet dat buitenzijn met ons mentaal welzijn? Bewegen we nu meer of minder dan voorheen? Onderzoekers van het Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ), de Universiteit Gent en Katholieke Universiteit Leuven willen in kaart brengen hoe, waar en hoeveel we de buitenruimtes bezoeken, en hoe deze bezoekjes onze gezondheid en emoties beïnvloeden.