Facilities
Research facilities
Research facilities
The facilities at Science Park are unique, and the location also has various innovative facilities such as laboratories that are available for others to use:
E-BioScience Laboratorium
Science Park Amsterdam is home to the first Dutch e-BioScience Laboratorium.
This e-BioLab has been provided by Nikhef, and is a partnership project involving the MicroArray Department (affiliated to the University of Amsterdam) and SARA Computing and Networking Services. The e-Biolab has a huge computing capacity and allows enormous quantities of data to be exchanged and visualized.
The e-BioLab also has a gigantic 8,000 by 4,800 pixel screen that consists of twenty individual computer screens. Strongly enhanced images, such as high-resolution electromicroscopic images, or indeed very small pictures, can be viewed here without any loss of detail.
Various institutes and companies use the e-Biolab for their research.
Amsterdam nanoCentre
One of the mainstays of Science Park is scientific research aimed at Life Sciences. This entails research based on different disciplines like biology, physics, mathematics and information technology. The AMOLF (the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics) Amsterdam nanoCentre is a nanofabrication and nantechnology facility in which a combination of technologies are deployed.
The facility is open to those conducting research into nanotechnology; there is a 57m2 cleanroom present.
Ultra-modern glasshouses
Science Park has ultra-modern, water-tight glasshouses with excellent temperature regulation and control systems. In the new glasshouses experiments are conducted on e.g. genetically modified plants. The complex comprises about fifty compartments, divided into four types of glasshouse: ‘ordinary’ glasshouses where experiments take place on ordinary plants; the PK1 glasshouse, where experiments take place on genetically modified plants; and the PKM2 and PKM3 glasshouses, where work is carried out on both genetically modified plants and genetically modified pathogens.
Nikhef: cleanrooms
Nikhef has a total of thirteen cleanrooms with classifications of up to 1,000 and as large as 170 m2, some of which have humidity controls and/or highly accurate temperature controls. Work is also underway with the business sector on devising prototypes and production lines for new developments.
Swammerdam Instituut for Life Sciences
The University of Amsterdam Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences (SILS) is one of ten research institutes of the Faculty of Science at the University. The Institute supports a variety of activities such as:
• mass spectrometry
• advanced microscopy
• microarray technology
• bioinformatics
• electrophysiology in brain research.
SARA Computing and Networking Services
SARA offers researchers ICT facilities that are essential for their work. These include:
• computing capacity on the very fastest supercomputers
• an insight into complex data with the help of visualization and virtual reality.
Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX)
Science Park has a high-grade ICT infrastructure, with one of the most powerful Internet hubs in the world, the Amsterdam Internet Exchange. This infrastructure makes the complex networks needed – particularly to cater for the increasing amounts of data traffic and speeds required – possible. The high-quality ICT infrastructure is within easy reach of companies and institutions at Science Park.
Telecity Science Park
TelecityGroup specializes in designing, building and managing secure environments with high connectivity where clients can house their technical, web and online environments. The data centres function as connection and information hubs that facilitate the storage, sharing and distribution of data, content and media. Telecity offers clients a data centre equipped with the latest technology.
