NMF
National Marine Facilities
For marine researchers, research ships and associated equipment are essential tools. In the Netherlands, the research vessels and sea going equipment are maintained, operated and managed by the National Marine research Facilities (NMF), part of NWO-I Royal NIOZ. NMF operates three vessels; one ocean-going, one for coastal Netherlands and one for inland waters, for the benefit of the seagoing research community in the Netherlands, and via Ocean Facilities Exchange Group (OFEG) on a global level. Besides the vessels, researchers have access to large equipment for observation, experiments and sampling at sea and the required technical support to operate the equipment.
Infrastructure and User Services
Key activities and services provided by the NIOZ NMF include the operation and management of three research vessels that are equipped with state-of-the-art technology, providing access to specialized research equipment for data acquisition from the marine environment, such as water and bottom samplers, specialized lab containers, underwater sensors, autonomous vehicles, and other tools for measuring physical, chemical, and biological parameters. These include equipment deployments and onboard measurements during specific seagoing expeditions as well as long term monitoring via offshore deployments. The operations include the whole process of collection to archiving the data in coordination with the research data management team of NIOZ.
The NIOZ NMF is also responsible for the coordination of logistical support for interdisciplinary research projects supporting marine scientists and engaging in national and international collaborations. The NIOZ NMF is the contact office for international collaborations with similar infrastructures through structures like OFEG, ERVO and IRSO and databases (such as SeaDataNEt).
Part of the renewal of the Dutch Research Fleet; the ocean going RV Pelagia will retire in 2025 and will be replaced by RV Anna Weber-van Bosse. The new multi purpose, ocean class vessel will operate world wide in all oceans except icebreaking capabilities. Besides RV Pelagia, the fleet consists of RV Wim Wolff, in operation since 2024, purpose-built for the coastal Netherlands and RV Adriaen Coenen, in operation since 2022, a small vessel used for day long expeditions mainly in the Wadden Sea.
Examples/description of the type of research
The NIOZ NMF is responsible for providing infrastructure and resources for marine and oceanographic research in the Netherlands through the operation of a range of facilities that support the scientific exploration of the coastal seas and open oceans. These include the operation of three research vessels and marine pool equipment. The ocean-going RV (currently RV Pelagia, which will retire by the end of 2025) operates year-round in all oceans except the polar regions. The coastal vessel RV Wim Wolff mainly operates in the Wadden Sea and Zeeland with the capability of operating within 20nm from the coast, giving possibilities to conduct research in the windparks. It is expected that increasing part of the work will be done by autonomous vessels, such as gliders and AUVs. The research activities include but not limited to water and sediment sampling for chemical, physical and biological data collection, deployment/recovery/service of long-term monitoring platforms (e.g., buoys and moorings), deployment/recovery of seagoing equipment (e.g., landers, gliders etc), onboard experiments and measurements (e.g., specified lab containers), seafloor surveys.
The vessels use in-house (NIOZ) built software “Shipsdata” for metadata acquisition. The third vessel RV Adriaen Coenen is a small inland waters vessel mainly used for day-long sampling trips mainly in the Wadden Sea. The cruise participants are primarily marine researchers based in the Netherlands conducting coastal and open ocean research. Through international collaborations (primarily above-mentioned OFEG and projects like EUROFLEETS), the ship time and equipment are also regularly shared between international organizations, expanding the capacity and capabilities.
How to access the infrastructure?
Research vessels are used to have access to specific research areas, regions, stations, and surveys via expeditions.
Equipment is used for physical sampling (e.g., water, sediment samples); hydroacoustics, video imagery etc. Equipment is also used at deployments that are used for digital data; e.g. long-term monitoring platforms, moorings, and landers. Autonomy and robotics are used for digital data, hydroacoustics, imagery, as well as physical sampling (ROV) The NIOZ research data management (RDM) team is not directly under NMF, however, data acquisition and access coexist via software called “Shipsdata” and the in-house database DAS.