Another setback as SRON decides to suspend relocation to Science Park
Plans for closer cooperation between the UvA and the VU’s science faculties have fallen through. After months of talks, the plan to move some of the UvA’s research departments to the Vrije Universiteit campus was cancelled last Friday. The Netherlands Institute for Space Research then decided to postpone its own planned relocation to Amsterdam Science Park.
It all started on Friday morning when a joint assembly of student and worker councils decided to vote against the planned move of the UvA research department to the VU campus. The move was estimated to cost about 20 million euros, an investment that would be ‘too risky’ according to the assembly’s chairman, Alex Tess Rutten.
This is the second time this year that the assembly opposed the move and this time, the Board of Directors of the UvA and VU have decided to call it off.
Geert ten Dam, president of the Board of Directors of the UvA, said she would continue making plans to move the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON) from its headquarters in Utrecht to Amsterdam Science Park. This was also an explicit wish of the joint assembly.
Plans for the relocation of the prestigious institute for space research were announced five years ago. By relocating to Science Park, the idea is that SRON would be included in the cooperation between beta scientists. After the relocation plans were cancelled, however, SRON announced that it would continue to pursue its own course of action and on 1 April put out a call for tenders.
Other universities
‘Our relocation plan was part of the broader relocation plans of the UvA and VU. Now that they have been cancelled, we have no other choice but to start over again,’ a spokesperson for SRON said. ‘Science Park is still a possibility, but we have opened up the tendering process to see if other universities can make arrangements for receiving us.’ The UvA said it will participate in the tender.
