The Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) is the Flemish research and knowledge centre for nature and its sustainable management and use. INBO conducts research and supplies knowledge to all those who prepare or make the policies or are interested in them as a stakeholder.

Through its scientific research, INBO supports all agencies dealing with open space in the Flemish government, as well as in organisations involved in nature conservation, forestry, agriculture, hunting and fishery. INBO publishes its results as open data and provides data for international reporting. It participates in (inter)national research networks such as LTER, ALTER-Net, LifeWatch, …

INBO is an unincorporated internal agency of the Flemish government. 

The Own Capital of the INBO (“Eigen Vermogen van het INBO, EVINBO”) is a separate corporation executing externally financed projects. EVINBO’s aim is to supplement the core INBO research where its government-supplied financial means are insufficient for deploying a complete and future-oriented research programme. It offers the possibility to tackle new research themes with immediate or mid-term policy relevance. Policy relevance is an essential criterion for both EVINBO and INBO research topics.

INBO employs some 220 staff, the EVINBO some 50.