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The Sea As a Good Cause

The Sea as a Good Cause: under this name, the charity work of VLIZ operates. It is the only good cause in Flanders that focuses specifically on marine research. VLIZ philanthropy projects and grants generate new scientific knowledge worldwide in support of a sustainable future for the ocean, so that you can keep on enjoying our blue planet.

We are committed to encourage young marine scientists in their scientific career so that they can engage in original research and thus gain innovative insights within marine science.  We also aim to raise social awareness about the crucial importance of the seas and ocean through projects that involve the general public, for example via citizen science and ocean literacy.

Within the framework of international collaborations between VLIZ and scientific institutes in the ‘Global South’, but also beyond, VLIZ The Sea as a Good Cause awards participation grants. With these grants, promising students and young or early career researchers in marine sciences can, during a short stay, exchange knowledge and gain practical experience in the labs of several marine research groups or attend, in Flanders, an international conference or a summer school in line with their expertise. The participation grants ‘Global South’ aim to enhance the so-called ‘north-south’ and ‘south-south’ cooperation, to support international mobility and exchanges.

In the framework of ‘The 7th World Conference on Marine Biodiversity’, The Sea as a Good Cause and The secretariat of the National Decade Committee for Belgium awards 10 full package participation grants to promising early career marine scientists. We want to offer the young marine researchers the hands-on and in-depth experience of the conference.

Learn more: https://www.vliz.be/en/support-us/sea-good-cause

The International Association for Biological Oceanography

The International Association for Biological Oceanography (IABO) is a global organization dedicated to promoting the advancement of knowledge of marine life and the biology of the sea by providing opportunities for communication and collaboration between biological oceanographers, marine biologists, and scientists of diverse disciplines. IABO serves as a network of scientists, researchers, and stakeholders advancing biological oceanography by fostering international collaboration and interdisciplinary research efforts. 

IABO provides a platform for the dissemination of knowledge, hosting conferences, publishing research findings, supporting capacity-building initiatives for early-career scientists, and highlighting and awarding outstanding accomplishments in marine biodiversity science.  The Association recognizes scientists demonstrating exceptional leadership in marine biodiversity science with the Carlo Heip Award, named in recognition of Carlo Heip's pioneering contributions to marine biodiversity research and the establishment of the World Conference of Marine Biodiversity (WCMB).  

In partnership with research institutions around the world, IABO has supported the organization of six WCMB conferences hosted in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania since 2008. IABO acts under the umbrella of the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) of the International Science Council (ISC), and serves as ex-officio member of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR).  The Association is proud to serve as a sponsor of the WCMB 2026 in Bruges organized by the Flanders Marine Institute.

PeerJ

The IABO Hub is the publishing home of the International Association for Biological Oceanography (IABO). The Hub features the latest biological oceanography research published by the members of IABO. 

How does it work? Initial abstract submissions are assessed for community relevance by the Hub Editorial Team, made up of IABO members. The Hub Editors ensure that the research featured in the Hub is of interest to the wider IABO membership. Full manuscripts are then peer reviewed in PeerJ, a high quality, Open Access journal publishing world-class research from across the globe. Final articles are published in PeerJ as well as being featured in the IABO Hub for maximum visibility to your community.

As with previous years, PeerJ and the IABO Hub will publish a Conference Collection of articles based on the themes and the research presented at this edition of the WCMB.

The National Decade Committee for Belgium

To bridge the global UN Ocean Decade with national stakeholders, countries are encouraged to establish dedicated national platforms. This is the foundation of the National Decade Committee (NDC) for Belgium, proudly serving as one of 43 established NDCs worldwide.

Officially launched on December 2, 2022, the Belgian NDC consists of a core group of 16 institutions alongside an open sounding board group. The core group brings together a balanced representation of Federal, Flemish, and Walloon authorities, alongside research institutes, industry partners, NGOs, philanthropic organizations, and educational entities. Together, they act as a central hub to connect and engage national and local actors in the Ocean Decade.

The Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) serves as the secretariat for the NDC Belgium, supporting core group members in their mission to promote transformative, demand-driven actions and facilitate local contributions to global ocean challenges.

Core Priorities & Principles

The initiatives of NDC Belgium are guided by two overarching principles: "Leave no one behind" and "One Ocean", with a strong emphasis on supporting global capacity development.

The committee focuses heavily on four priority themes:

  • Ocean Observation & Prediction
  • Ocean Data Management & Sharing
  • Ocean Literacy & Citizen Engagement
  • Capacity Development & Knowledge Exchange

Support & Funding: The NDC Belgium is supported by the engagement of its members and members’ institutions and partnerships. Additionally, the Flanders government (EWI) has reserved earmarked funding to support the Ocean Decade in response to Flanders government ambition to adhere to the Ocean Decade.

Supporting WCMB 2026

This year, in alignment with the Ocean Decade project ABC WoRMS, the NDC Belgium—in cooperation with The Sea as a Good Cause (VLIZ Philanthropy)—is proud to support the 7th World Conference on Marine Biodiversity (WCMB) in Brugge.

In addition to providing promotional materials and in-kind contributions, the NDC Belgium is actively supporting the next generation of ocean leaders by sponsoring:

  • 10 Travel Grants for Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOPs) from the Global South.
  • 12 One-Day Participation Grants for Belgium-based ECOPs representing marine Master’s programs in Flanders.

Learn more: https://fust.iode.org/en/NDC-BE

Copernicus Marine Service

The Copernicus Marine Service is the marine component of the European Union’s Copernicus Programme. It provides free, open-access, and science-based information on the state of the Ocean at both global and regional scales. This includes data on the physical Ocean (Blue Ocean), sea ice (White Ocean), and Ocean biogeochemistry (Green Ocean).

Funded by the European Commission and implemented by Mercator Ocean International, the service supports the implementation of EU policies and International legal Commitments related to Ocean Governance. It also aims to meet the growing demand for reliable Ocean knowledge across society, and to foster sustainable development in the Ocean sectors by providing state-of-the-art Ocean data and forecasts.

The Copernicus Marine Service contributes to a wide range of applications, including marine protection, climate change monitoring, pollution tracking, maritime safety, sustainable use of marine resources, and the development of renewable Ocean energy. It is also an asset for scientific research and innovation, and plays a key role in raising public awareness of Ocean-related issues by making complex Ocean information accessible to citizens all around the world.

Learn more: About Copernicus | CMEMS

LifeWatch ERIC

LifeWatch ERIC is Europe’s only e-Science infrastructure, offering FAIR-compliant data and analytical services dedicated to research in both biodiversity and ecosystem. Covering a specific and unique niche in the European and international landscape, LifeWatch ERIC’s vision is to become the Research Infrastructure providing one-click access to the world’s content, communities, and services in biodiversity and ecosystem.

Through LifeWatch ERIC, researchers can discover, access, harmonise, standardise, integrate, and analyse data, enabling advanced modelling of biodiversity and ecosystems.

These concepts are multidimensional and even cross-domain: biodiversity is studied across the many levels of biological organisation, as well as scales of observation. Ecosystems are recognised across multiple scales, components and interactions.

To allow the investigation of this complexity, LifeWatch ERIC deploys cutting-edge e-infrastructure technology which federates FAIR-compliant data, reproducible analytical services and mobilised research communities, generating knowledge and innovation.

Virtual Research Environments (VREs) provide resources (technological push) for researchers to test their hypotheses and derive evidence-based knowledge (scientific pull), ultimately producing knowledge stemming from multiple disciplines or domains (synthetic knowledge).

The results of this have contributed to advancing various research fields at national, European and global levels, such as macroecology, agroecology, aquatic ecology, invasive taxa, marine ecology, semantic, blockchain, and text mining.

The infrastructure consists of four basic interconnected layers:

  • Core (vertical) services, (e.g., AAI, HPC, could services);

  • Integration (horizontal) services (e.g., Metadata Catalogue, EcoPortal);

  • Ecosystem of analytics, composed of hundreds of web services;

  • Services for converting research results into knowledge.

Learn more: www.lifewatch.eu

Senckenberg

Learn more: https://www.senckenberg.de/en/ 

Jan De Nul

Jan De Nul shapes water, land and energy around the world, addressing some of the most important challenges of our time. From the rising sea level to the energy transition, from polluted soil to sustainable construction: we engineer solutions that future-proof our world, known for their complexity and high stakes. Our Can-Do people focus on four areas of expertise: Offshore Energy, Dredging Solutions, Construction Projects and Planet Redevelopment. Together, we all work towards one shared goal: to improve the global quality of life for generations to come.

Learn more: www.jandenul.com

Toerisme Vlaanderen - Flanders Convention Bureau

Flanders Convention Bureau is the official convention bureau for Flanders and Brussels. We are part of the Flemish Government, which makes us 100% objective and impartial. Our service is free, our advice priceless.

Flanders Convention Bureau operates not only from the headquarters in Brussels, Flanders, but also in key target markets worldwide. That is why you will always find an expert from Flanders Convention Bureau near you.

Our experts cooperate tightly with local convention bureaus, as well as with professional trade unions, knowledge institutions, spearhead clusters and sectoral federations. All of these connections allow us to put together the strongest possible LOC (Local Organizing Committee) for you. This is your most reassuring guarantee of a successful conference.

Learn more: https://www.flandersconventionbureau.com/

Trackwild

Learn more: https://trackwild-ats.com/

Frontiers in Marine Science

Frontiers is one of the world’s largest and most cited open-access publishers, publishing rigorously peer-reviewed research across science, medicine, engineering, and the humanities. Its mission is “Creating solutions for healthy lives on a healthy planet,” achieved by making research free to read, transparent, and open to everyone. Since its founding, Frontiers has built a global community of millions of researchers and published hundreds of thousands of articles, using its open-access model to accelerate scientific and medical breakthroughs and put research directly into the hands of society.

Frontiers in Marine Science covers the full breadth of ocean research, from marine biology, ecology, and biodiversity to physical oceanography, marine biogeochemistry, conservation, and marine policy. The journal holds a Journal Impact Factor of 3.4 and a CiteScore of 6.5, and it is ranked Q1 in its field, reflecting its standing among the most influential venues for marine science research. Frontiers in Marine Science is led by Field Chief Editor Carlos Duarte, alongside a global editorial board of leading researchers, providing an open-access platform for original research, reviews, and data reports that advance our understanding of marine ecosystems and support evidence-based ocean management.

As a proud sponsor of the 7th World Conference on Marine Biodiversity, Frontiers in Marine Science is pleased to support the community of scientists gathering in Bruges to share the latest advances in marine biodiversity research. We look forward to connecting with researchers, editors, and conference delegates, and to championing open science as a driver of a healthier, better understood ocean.

Learn more: www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science

The Royal Society Publishing

Launched in 2005 in response to the need from the community for short and rapid communications, Biology Letters is an online, peer-reviewed Royal Society journal that publishes short, high-quality articles, reviews and opinion pieces from across the biological sciences. The scope of Biology Letters is vast - publishing high-quality research in any area of the biological sciences. However, we have particular strengths in the biology, evolution and ecology of whole organisms. We also publish in other areas of biology, such as molecular ecology and evolution, environmental science, and phylogenetics.

Articles submitted to Biology Letters benefit from its broad scope and readership, dedicated media promotion and we aim for a turnaround time of within 4 weeks to first decision.

The journal is particularly suited to research that requires high visibility due to its novel findings. Additionally, we are an excellent resource for early career researchers who may be starting to submit their studies for publication the first time.

The Royal Society’s journals aim to foster inclusive science and scholarship that reflects the disciplinary, geographic and human diversity of the community. Submissions are encouraged and welcomed from all authors, regardless of their characteristics, protected or otherwise. We are committed to equal opportunity and work diligently to mitigate bias in our editorial review processes. We continually work toward identifying and implementing good practices for scientific publishing. This statement was endorsed by previous journal Editor-in-Chief David Beerling.

Learn more: Biology Letters