The Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) acts as the coordination and information platform for marine and coastal-related scientific research in Flanders and serves as an international contact point. The VLIZ is a government funded but autonomous institute with the legal status of a non-profit organization and employs 65 FTE’s. VLIZ set up a strong collaborative network through 21 cooperation agreements with Flemish research groups and administrations and integrates its activities in 7 national and 25 international networks. Core activities of VLIZ are: to provide the research vessel 'Simon Stevin' and other research equipment and infrastructure for common use; to run the data centre for management and exchange of marine data and information; to expand the library developing a collection of marine and coastal scientific literature; to manage an information desk and to provide policy-relevant scientific information.

VLIZ will offer TA and VA, will lead NA2, and participate in all networking activities and JRA3 and JRA4.