Controlled Environment Facility (CEF)

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are building a new unique science facility at our UK Cambridge headquarters.

The new BAS Controlled Environment Facility (CEF) is an advanced research centre dedicated to studying polar ecosystems. This state-of-the-art facility will provide essential resources for understanding how life has adapted to extreme cold and how it is being affected by environmental changes.

The new BAS CEF will support world-class collaborative research, addressing critical gaps in knowledge. It will enable scientists to explore pressing questions about polar biodiversity, including the resilience of key species, the impacts of pollutants, and the potential for biotechnological innovations that could contribute to Net Zero goals.

A unique research facility

The BAS CEF is the only low temperature biological storage and experimental facility in the UK, and complements two other similar facilities worldwide, one in Germany at the Alfred Wegener Institute, and one in Hobart, Australia.

The facility will include large storage units at +4°C and -20°C, combined with three controlled cold (0°C) environment experimental rooms and a polar marine aquarium operating between -2°C and 0°C. This advanced facility will greatly enhance the UK’s capacity for biological research in polar regions.

Examples of such include analyses of individual proteins, cells, microbiomes and genomes, through to animal responses to warming, heatwaves, acidification, and ocean freshening, analyses of pollutants, viral infections and microplastics and development of novel cold-adapted biotechnological innovations.

Answering important science questions

Research in the new CEF will focus on answering important science questions to advance understanding about polar ecosystems.

Can life in the polar regions adapt to the rapid rate of environmental change at the poles? How do environmental hazards impact life in the polar regions? What level of change will destabilise high latitude ecosystems on land and in the sea? How can polar resources be used to build a more resilient planet? How can polar innovation be used to provide enhanced understanding of fundamental biology underpinning other areas of science?

Advancing accessibility: key features of the new CEF

FLEXIBILITY

A key feature of this CEF is its flexibility.  It not only provides preserved material from the field for high tech analysis, but also allows experiments to be carried out in precisely controlled conditions.  This reproducibility is crucial when studying species with less than a 3°C range in their natural environment. Such precision and consistency over prolonged periods cannot be delivered remotely in field operations.

IMPROVING EDI

The facility will enhance access to material and support for researchers not able to travel to polar environments because of disabilities, caring responsibilities, societal commitments, and/or the extended time commitments away from normal job functions and family.

The new CEF allows access to polar material for these sectors and has a controlled environment experimental room supporting access for a range of disabilities, including wheelchair access.

The facility also provides essential facilities for early career researchers to be trained as the next generation of polar scientists.

RERDUCING CARBON FOOTPRINT

Most of the research carried out in the current facility to date is not possible on the RRS Sir David Attenborough, at research stations or in other aquaria. This work has a smaller carbon footprint cost than solely shipboard or station-based projects, therefore helps to drive forward our Net Zero aspirations.

Importance for UK polar research to date

Marine animals collected from Antarctic waters have been maintained in aquarium facilities in Antarctica and the UK by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) since 1973.

The current BAS CEF has supported UK research in polar biodiversity for over four decades and has provided material for, and experimental support for, over 1,000 projects and over 2,500 published papers.

Funding for the facility has been provided by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).