DESC

The Dutch Experiment Support Center's, DESC, primary task is to provide user support for acceleration (i.e. gravity) research. It is a nonprofit initiative located at the Free University in Amsterdam.

The main objective of DESC is to increase the scientific output in the field of gravitational biology / physiology research.

To accomplish this, DESC supports, initiates and facilitates acceleration research by providing know-how and access to ground based research facilities and by offering services and (laboratory) assistance for ground based and flight experiments.

Support tasks by DESC may be divided in three areas:

A. Support to the science community, such as:

B. Support to industry / technology projects, such as:

C. General tasks, such as:

DESC is embedded in a larger structure for 'User Support' within the Netherlands. The Dutch user support is arranged within the 'Dutch Utilisation Center', DUC. See for DUC info the internal link, DUC or external link DUC.
DESC was officially opened during the first NL-Symposium by the Dutch astronaut André Kuipers and starded its operations in January 1999.

The main DESC laboratory and facilities are located at the department of Oral Biology, group of Oral Cell Biology (OCB) of the Academic Center for Dentistry in Amsterdam (ACTA), at the Free University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. (See also 'Laboratory Facilities available at DESC')

DESC is supported by grants from the Programme Bureau External Research of the Space Research Organisation of the Netherlands (SRON).


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