(English) [Opinion] Dutch movable stations in nature – ‘for a dime on the first row’
22 maart 2013
Recently, the British Antarctic Survey’s Rothera station has welcomed new guests. A group of Dutch scientists from the universities of Utrecht and Groningen and from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research arrived this season to do laboratory research, financially supported by the NWO, the Dutch NSF. Neither being able nor willing to construct a research site for themselves on the seventh continent, these Dutch institutions decided to piggyback. Why not stay at the compounds of their North Sea neighbours, located on Adelaide Island?
And it is quite interesting to see the freebies the Dutch got. The British arrange the logistics (from Cambridge) and they have built the mobile docking station that matches with the four Dutch mobile laboratories. Interestingly, these mobile labs are rebuilt… cargo containers. So, this is how Dutch big science rolls!