News

On Saturday 25 June 2022, the new Belgian oceanographic research vessel RV Belgica was baptised. The official ceremony took place at the Rigakaai (North Sea Port) in the godfather city of Ghent, where the RV Belgica was moored for a few days for this occasion.

Des scientifiques de l'Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique ont découvert un point chaud pour la vie marine dans la partie belge de la mer du Nord.

In 2021, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) performed a total of 248 flight hours over the North Sea in the framework of the national programme of aerial surveys. Thirteen cases of operational discharges by ships have been observed.

On Thursday 21 April 2022, His Majesty King Philippe visited the new research vessel RV Belgica.

Sand is vital for building the foundations of our society. Currently, around 50 billion tonnes of this raw material are extracted worldwide each year, and the growing world population is only increasing demand.

A team of Belgian researchers has described ten new species of small predatory fish from Lake Edward. Scientists have long suspected that this lake between the DR Congo and Uganda is home to exceptional fish diversity.

Pterosaurs, flying reptiles and close relatives of the dinosaurs, already developed feathers of different shapes and colours. This has been proven by a 115 million year old Brazilian fossil, studied by a team of palaeontologists.

On Thursday 31 March 2022, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Justice and the North Sea, Mr Vincent Van Quickenborne, and the State Secretary for Relance and Strategic Investments, in charge of Science Policy, Mr Thomas Dermine, visited the new Belgian research vessel 'RV Belgica'.

Prehistoric mammals bulked up, rather than develop bigger brains, to boost their survival chances once dinosaurs had become extinct, research suggests.

Biologist Nicolas Laurent and his research team go on an expedition to the Democratic Republic of Congo, to the remote village of Inkanamongo.