The BELSPO Science Policy is the federal administration responsible for the preparation and implementation of research programmes in several fields (fundamental research, sustainable development, social cohesion, information society, space technology…) aiming to develop a permanent knowledge resource within scientific and technical spheres at the service of the Federal Authority. The PPS Science Policy coordinates the Belgian participation to the management of European activities (6th Framework programme, COST, EUREKA, GMES, INTAS …) with the Belgian Communities and Regions.

The PPS Science Policy manages an annual budget of about 517 millions euros. It is also responsible for 10 Research Institutions (of which 2 are dealing with biodiversity research and collections).

Notwithstanding that the legal aspects of biodiversity are a regional competence, the PPS Science Policy is the only government body that has a specific multi annual research programme on biodiversity. This programme is developed within the framework of Co-operation agreements with the Regions and Communities in order to insure the necessary collaboration with the federated entities.

(The programme is implemented by calls for proposals open to universities and public research institutions. Since 2001, teams from European universities or public research institutions are able to join Belgian teams applying for funding and participate as a “minor” partner in the projects).

The yearly budget of the multi annual research programme on Biodiversity is approximately 2.5 million euros. The objective of the programme is to improve scientific understanding as a fundamental basis for sound decision-making. The programme covers biodiversity research of terrestrial (including freshwater) temperate ecosystems, the North Sea and the Antarctic ecosystems.
An additional budget of about 0.350 millions euros is yearly allocated for impulse of biodiversity research within the two Federal Institutions dealing with biodiversity issue.

The PPS Science Policy also provides a budget line for collaborating research activities (including possible biodiversity research) in the framework of bilateral agreements for economic, industrial, scientific and technological cooperation which Belgium has concluded with a number of countries (Bulgaria, China, Poland, Russia…).
The PPS Science Policy supports an important research programme for earth observation which aims at generalising use of satellite data as a source of information, notably for biodiversity related issues (land use characterisation, cartography...) and is funding the LUCC international project office.

Connected to biodiversity research activities, the PPS Science Policy is financing, with a budget of about 5 million euros/y, the four complementary research-based culture collections of micro-organisms (bacteria, fungi and yeasts on the one hand, and plasmids and cDNA libraries on the other hand) with research contracts on isolation, cultivation and identification of strains.
The PPS Science Policy is the supporting body of the Belgian node of the GBIF network.

The PPS Science Policy is the funding and administrating body of the Belgian Biodiversity Platform who’s aim is to support interdisciplinary research on biological diversity at national and international levels and to promote and facilitate interactions between biodiversity related policy and the scientific research..

PPS Science Policy – Annual budget spent on biodiversity research programmes: 2,85 million.

PPS-Science Policy in BiodiveERsA
PPS-Science Policy will act as the coordinating body for Work Package 1 “ Information retrieval and dissemination on biodiversity research programmes ”. The PPS Science Policy, with the assistance of the Belgian Biodiversity Platform is currently setting-up an integrated Belgian Biodiversity Information Service combining biological, policy and IT expertise present in the different initiatives it is supporting (the Belgian Biodiversity Platform, the Belgian node of the GBIF, the CHM of the CBD, a catalogue of Belgian Biodiversity expertise). By this way, the PPS Science Policy intends to play a key role in providing simple and structured access to meta-data information, in managing and maintaining access to the resources, in interpretation, advising and analysing collated information. This integrated expertise combined with the broad representation of the Belgian Biodiversity platform on European and international fora, should be very helpful for the coordination of WP1.