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Belgica-II

On the 28th of October 2016, the Ministerial Council agreed to replace the research vessel RV Belgica, after a proposal by Secretary of State for Science Policy Elke Sleurs and Secretary of State for the North Sea Philippe De Backer. On the 31st of March 2017, the Council of Ministers agreed to launch the public procurement for the purchase of a new research vessel to replace the RV Belgica, after a proposal by Secretary of State for Science Policy Zuhal Demir. The tender for the purchase of a new research vessel to replace the RV Belgica was published on 12 June 2017.

On 22nd December 2017 and 16 March 2018 the Council of Ministers agreed to award the contract for the building of a new multidisciplinary research vessel to replace our RV Belgica to Freire Shipyard (Spain, Vigo). The contract has started on 8 june 2018 for 28 months. The first 8 months will be dedicated to the design of the ship (by Rolls Royce Marine AS). The start of the construction is scheduled for early 2019 and the delivery of the ship by the end of 2020.

On 6 November 2018, Defense Minister Steven Vandeput and State Secretary for Science Policy Zuhal Demir announced the successor to the research vessel Belgica. By the end of 2020, the bottle of champagne will hit the new ship at the shipyard Freire Shipyard in Spain. For the time being the ship bears the name New Research Vessel , but through a competition young people can propose a definite name.

With the delivery of the new ship in 2020, the current Belgica will have 36 years of service. "After 34 years we notice more and more difficulties with employability", says State Secretary Demir. This is because a research ship has a maximum lifespan of thirty years. In order to meet national and international obligations and to continue supporting the marine sciences, the federal government decided in 2017 to build a new oceanographic research vessel. The assignment for the design and construction started on 8 June 2018 and will last 28 months. The cost price is approximately 54 million euros.

The new ship will be 70 meters long, 20 meters longer than the Belgica. This means that there are up to 28 scientists on board. The laboratory space doubles in capacity and is equipped with the latest scientific equipment. This allows them to take samples up to a depth of 5,000 meters. The new ship will also be very quiet, important for fisheries research.

Although the North Sea remains the most important research area of the new ship, it will extend further than that of the Belgica. Northward it reaches above the Arctic Circle - for which the hull gets a slight ice-strengthening - in the south to the Mediterranean and Black Sea and west to the Atlantic Ocean. The ship will be able to operate autonomously for thirty days and annually carry out an average of 300 days of research at sea. This is currently 200 days for the Belgica.

"A research vessel must meet many requirements that are close to those for a mine-mine ship," said Admiral Yves Dupont, Division Manager for Systems at the Directorate General for Material Resources of Defense. "It must be quiet, have a large aft deck and can get many systems in and out of the water, and our military personnel already have that expertise and can use it to develop a good tool for the scientists."

The research vessel will be owned by the Belgian state, represented by the Federal Science Policy (BELSPO). Operational management is in the hands of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) in collaboration with Defense.