Research infrastructure

ILVO activities take place on 8 sites in Merelbeke, Melle en Ostend. They share an impressive infrastructure:

Specialized research infrastructure

• > 200 ha trial fields, including +/- 6 ha for organic cultivation
• 50 ha organic trial fields and an agro-ecological trial platform
• > 15,000m² experimental greenhouses and climate chambers for research, including for quarantine organisms
• > 20,000m² experimental animal housing available for co-creative research in dairy, poultry and rabbits, and pig production
• Experimental spaces with seawater tanks and a netting room
• Access to research vessels
• The pilot food processing plant "Food Pilot" equipped with >50 pieces of semi-industrial equipment
• Workshop for building prototypes for automation and robotization
• Composting site and compost reactor

ILVO also has more than 40 accredited labs for specialized analyses

• Food analyses
• Animal-related analyses
• Marine analyses
• Diagnosis of plant-pathogenic bacteria, fungi, mites, insects, viruses and nematodes
• Analyses for plant, soil and substrate
• Laboratory for Seed Testing
• Spray technology

National Reference Laboratory (NRL)

• GMO
• Allergens
• Toxins and residues of veterinary medicines
• Plant parasitic organisms - (NRL en EURL)

And highly specific, sometimes unique equipment

• Specialized devices for measuring odor, particulate matter and gases in and around animal housing (CO2, N2O, CH4, NH3)
• HYDRAS- Rainout shelters, hydrology and drones for stuyding drought stress in plants
• Plant-ecofysiological infrastructure, appropriate software and data-mining pipelines
• Seed Pilot for seed processing and a seed lab
  
• Sequence databases to identify various organisms
• Gene database for plants
• A horizontally-organized measuring platform for chromatography - mass spectrometry: Meet@all
• A horizontally-organized Genomics Platform for studying genes and genomes
• AIplatform4agrifood (coming soon)
• The data-sharing platform DjustConnect
• The latest drone-, robot- and sensor technology for precision agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries
• Certified drone pilots

ILVO is also welcome at several working farms and commercial fishing vessels to preform research under real-life conditions. Last, ILVO is part of the Agrolink Flanders network and works in various Belgian and European projects together with other research institutions, farms and companies.