The new VU Research Building was officially inaugurated on 2 October. Located at the heart of Amsterdam’s Zuidas district, the building brings together advanced facilities for research and education in physics, earth sciences, neuroscience and technology.
The building was already brought into use last year, but the official opening marked the completion of this new research environment, where fundamental science, advanced technology and societal applications can meet. During the inauguration, VU Executive Board President Margrethe Jonkman, Faculty of Science Dean Aletta Kraneveld, Head of Neuroscience Guus Smit and Amsterdam alderperson Melanie van der Horst highlighted the building’s role in addressing major challenges in health, life sciences, climate and resilience.
Precision science in the middle of the city
One of the building’s defining features is its exceptional vibration stability. The laboratory wing accommodates ultra-stable lasers, frequency combs and atomic clocks used to test fundamental laws of nature, investigate dark matter and develop quantum communication technologies and new ways to transmit highly accurate time and frequency signals. In such experiments, a change in the distance between two mirrors of only a fraction of an atom’s size can measurably alter the colour of laser light.
Creating this level of stability in the busy Zuidas area required a specialised foundation. The laboratory wing rests on 470 piles extending approximately 25 metres into the ground, on a foundation slab one metre thick. An underground concrete wall around the building helps shield the laboratories from vibrations caused by nearby road, rail and public transport. This enables researchers to carry out measurements on timescales as short as billionths of a second, despite the building’s urban location.
Space for collaboration
The Research Building has been designed not only for highly specialised experiments, but also for exchange between disciplines. Its facilities support collaboration between researchers in fields including physics, neuroscience and earth sciences, as well as the VU Technology Center. Such proximity can lead to new approaches, for example when physicists and neuroscientists jointly develop microscopy methods to better understand brain disorders. With the official inauguration, the Research Building has become a new home for researchers working across disciplines, from fundamental science to technologies with applications in health, climate and society.