Behind the famous Museum of Natural Sciences is hidden the research institute named the “Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences”.

This is a big institute with 250 scientists studying different disciplines: biology, geology, oceanography, taxonomy, palaeontology and ecology. The scientists aim to write scientific papers on these different fields in order to advise political decision makers at the national as well at the international level.

Their goal is to conserve biodiversity, monitor the state of the marine ecosystems and to find possibilities to capture and store industrial CO2.

It is involved in important scientific research activities, the 4 main focus are:

• Biodiversity and mechanisms involved in the evolution of life

• Land, freshwater and marine ecosystems

• History of life, the climate and human settlements

• Geology of Belgium and modelling the North Sea

Concerning the oceans, the team MARECO that my supervisor is working with, have been studying the North Sea for a long time in order to protect it better and to be able to make predictions. Studies about marine mammals, exotic species, seabirds and bats, underwater noise, ecological models, hard substrates or others are carried out by the researchers from this team.

Map of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences