"ILVO (Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research) is a scientific institute belonging to the Flemish Government - Policy Area 'Agriculture and Fisheries'.

ILVO’s mission consists of performing and coordinating policy-supporting scientific research and the associated public service in view of a sustainable agriculture and fishery in an economic, ecological and social perspective.

Staff and Infrastructure

ILVO employs about five hundred members of staff, half of whom are statutory whereas the other half are paid by the Corporate Personality. More than one third of the staff are researchers.

ILVO has about 200 ha for field trials, 15,000 m² of greenhouses and more than 20,000 m² of experimental animal houses.

There are several laboratories, a diagnostic centre and accredited laboratories for plants, animal feed, spray technology, food and GMO. There are also test banks, a dairy test installation, a seed reception and processing unit and a test factory for dairy products.

Structure of the research

Scientific research in the area of agriculture and fisheries is one of the core tasks of ILVO. The research is subdivided into four units: Animal sciences, Plant sciences, Social sciences, Technology & Food sciences. Each unit consists of several research areas.

Trump cards

ILVO is both at home and abroad an important knowledge centre in several fields: plant breeding, plant genetics, crop husbandry, eco-physiology, crop protection, animal nutrition, animal welfare, agricultural engineering, fisheries, dairy technology, GMO-detection, DUS and VCU research, diagnosis, microbiological and chemical food safety, microbial composting, etc.

These knowledge centres are an important reference source of information for the Flemish government in view of drawing up and implementing EU-directives. Well-founded regulations through research results, obtained under Flemish conditions are an important trump card. In addition, the knowledge of so-called TADs (Technological Advisory Services) contribute directly to practice."