URMO is hosted by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) as a contribution to the "International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange" (IODE) programme of the "Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission" (IOC) of UNESCO, and as a memory to its creator Jacob van der Land.
Dr. Jacob van der Land passed away on Sunday 23 October 2011, 76 years old. He spent many of his productive years - before and after his retirement - on URMO, ERMS, and WoRMS. He was curator of worms (Vermes) and head of the department of Invertebrates of the former Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (RMNH), later National Museum of Natural History, which presently is known as the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis at Leiden, The Netherlands.