THE BELGIAN NORTH SEA PROGRAMMES

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Belgian Federal Science Policy Office

2005

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CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5

1. INTRODUCTION: SETTING THE SCENE 9

1.1 The case for North Sea Research 9

1.2 Institutional context of North Sea research 10

1.2.1 Belgium 10

1.2.2 International dimension 14

1.3 Evaluation of BELSPO-funded North Sea research 1970-2002 19

2. EXISTING STRUCTURE OF BELGIAN MARINE SCIENCE 21

2.1 Overview of main research players 21

2.2 Public research supporting institutes 22

2.2.1 Federal institutes 22

2.2.2 Regional institutes 25

2.3 An initiative for national co-ordination: the Belgian Biodiversity Platform 26

2.4 The Federal and Flemish research vessels: Belgica and Zeeleeuw 27

3. BELGIAN NORTH SEA PROGRAMMES 29

3.1 North Sea research until 1970 29

3.2 Phase 1 - Project Sea (1970-1976) 30

3.3 Phases 2 and 3 - Concerted Research Actions (1976-1993) 32

3.4 Phase 4 - Impulse Programme Marine Sciences (1992-1997) 33

3.5 Phase 5 - Scientific Support Plan for a Sustainable Development Policy: Sustainable

Management of the North Sea (1997-2003) 33

3.6 Phase 6 - Scientific Support Plan for a Sustainable Development Policy, Phase II: Global

change, ecosystems and biodiversity’ - North Sea (2001-2005) 35

3.7 Symposia, workshops and publications 35

4. ANALYSIS OF PROJECTS 38

4.1 Synthesis of project appraisals 38

4.1.1 Ecosystems and Marine Biology 38

4.1.2 Marine Chemistry 41

4.1.3 Geology, Data management, Modelling and Socio-Economics 44

4.2 Project output and impact 46

4.2.1 Project reporting 46

4.2.2 Bibliographic analysis 48

4.3 International co-operation 48

4.4 Overall evaluation of the projects 49

5 DATA MANAGEMENT 51

5.1 Data storage in Project Sea 51

5.2 Belgian Data Centres 52

5.3 National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC) 53

5.4 The IDOD database 53

5.5 Other international affiliations 55

5.6 Retrospective datamining 55

6. CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PROGRAMMES 56

6.1 Programme development 56

6.2 Operational management 58

6.2.1 The role of the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) 58

6.2.2 Scientific and political interactions in Belgium 60

6.2.3 The Programme Steering Committees 61

6.2.4 The Project User Groups 61

6.3 Programme dynamics 63

6.3.1 Variations in programme budget 63

6.3.2 Contract organisation and institutional involvement 64

6.4 Summarising 72

7. SUMMING UP STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES 73

8. FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR BELGIAN MARINE RESEARCH 77

8.1 A continuing need for marine research in Belgium 77

8.2 The scope of future Belgian marine research 78

8.3 Long-term commitment 79

8.4 Planning strategy of future research programmes 80

8.5 Human dimension of the future programmes 82

9. A PROPOSED VIRTUAL NETWORK 85

9.1 Background 85

9.2 Previous studies for a common marine scientific infrastructure 86

9.3 Possible scenarios for a Virtual Network 87

9.4 Outline of a preferred scenario for a Virtual Network with its core unit 87

9.4.1 The concept 87

9.4.2 Membership 89

9.4.3 Key facilities of a BOI 90

9.4.4 Governance 92

9.5 Adapting the marine infrastructure of Belgium 92

9.5.1 Contribution of Universities 93

9.5.2 Contribution of RBINS/MUMM 93

9.5.3 Contribution of Regional Institutes from Flanders 95

9.5.4 Contribution of French-speaking institutes 96

9.6 First steps towards implementation of a Virtual Network 96

10. MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS IN BRIEF 98