NICAS

Infrastructure and User Services

The existing infrastructure is concentrated on the Ateliergebouw in Amsterdam. This infrastructure is intensively used by the founding partners of NICAS and collaborators and partner institutions who approach NICAS with specific questions or problems. The instrumental facilities of the laboratories in the Ateliergebouw have advanced instrumentation for XRF (both laboratory based and handheld XRF), XRD, py-GC/MS, UPLC, ESI-MS, Ion Chromatography, high and low vacuum SFEG-SEM/EDX, ATR-FTIR microscopy, FTIR, a portable Raman 785 nm spectrophotometer and laboratory based Raman microscopy, RTI, FORS, microfadeometry, colorimetry, IRR, X-ray imaging, macro Rontgen-fluorescent scanner, Reflectance Imaging camera’s (400-1000cm-1 and 1000-2500 cm-1), artificially ageing facilities and extensive research microscopy an photography facilities.

The NICAS partners provide access to research facilities and advanced techniques which are outside the Ateliergebouw, like research facilities chemistry labs that are well-equipped for (in)organic syntheses, X-ray absorption spectrometer, single-crystal diffractometer, XRD-scanner, OCT, laser speckle imaging, differential scanning calorimeter, NMR instruments; and laboratories dedicated to GC, GC/MS and HPLC.

The service function for the field at large is being developed further. NICAS will give access to facilities and expertise to a large number of smaller entities in the cultural heritage field. It will then serve as an experimental centre for the development of cutting-edge techniques and fundamental knowledge, which can then be tested and applied in practice at the level of the end users in cultural heritage institutions.

Examples/description of the type of research

The central issue within the NICAS infrastructure is the ongoing biography of the object. The infrastructure is used to analyse the objects in as much detail as possible, ascertaining how and with what materials it was made, what the original context of manufacture was (both in a material and a socio-cultural sense), and what the original appearance of the object is likely to have been. Then a comparison is made to the actual state of the object, determining how it has changed over time and, extrapolating the available information using mathematical models, how it will change in the future. The final question then becomes what measures we can take to sustainably control processes of change in order to preserve these objects for future generations.

The study of cultural heritage objects is highly challenging, as works of art are unique, often composed of heterogeneous materials possessing different histories and mechanisms of ageing and degradation. This places extra demands on the analytical equipment used to gather data about the objects. New analytical methods are developed to discriminate between different layers and extremely small differences in chemical composition. This calls for both new, non-destructive equipment and innovative combinations of existing analytical equipment.

The analysis of single objects generates great quantities of data because of the number and sensitivity of the methods used. In addition, the diversity of data sets used for and generated by this type of research (‘messy’ data), necessitates the integration of data science for the fusion and fission of data sets, and to make them visible and usable for researchers and end users (museum and cultural heritage professionals).

How to access the infrastructure?

Access to the infrastructure is at present handled on a case-by-case basis for individual research projects. Requests for access are judged by their appropriateness for the NICAS research agenda and the availability of beam time and expertise. Requests can be question-based or equipment-based. If users already know the specific instrumentation they would like to access, they specify this in their application, together with the question(s) they would like answered. Users can also apply with a question (about an object or group of objects). For this last category, the NICAS Scientific Working Group and associated researchers will determine which analytical methods will most likely yield results.