Flanders Research Institute for Agricultural, Fisheries and Food (ILVO)

ILVO is an independent research institute that studies and promotes the sustainability of agriculture, fisheries and agri-food sector. ILVO’s multidisciplinary research integrates tacit knowledge with technological innovation in sectors spanning from mainstream to organic agriculture, food production to bioeconomy and public, private to non-profit sector across 8 thematic areas: 

• Towards a climate-smart food production
• Profitable and resilient food systems
• Healthy crops
• Food and health
• Role of animal production in society
• Agriculture and countryside in an urbanized society
• Closing loops and the bio-economy
• Marine production and the marine environment

ILVO embodies the multi-actor approach, promoting interaction between all stakeholder groups of the complex agro-food ecosystem and has 6 Living labs that bring together scientists, policy makers, citizens and regions to co-create solution focused research, of which one is the Agrofood Technology Living Lab.

ILVO manages DjustConnect, a neutral data exchange platform available for all data users in the Agrifood sector, and developed based on the IDS architecture. Using DjustConnect requires to comply with the core values regarding data ownership, transparency and trust, and gives back control of their data to the farmers. 

ILVO is a member of the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA).