The GroDome, which was designed to the specific requirements of Edinburgh University's plant sciences department, consists of one large Level ll chamber and two smaller Level lll chambers
Professor Karl Oparka, regius chair of plant sciences at Edinburgh University, has officially opened the fully commissioned GroDome, which has been designed and constructed by Unigro.
The facility provides Level ll and Level lll containment with highly controlled internal environmental parameters.
Professor Oparka said: "This facility provides the environmental control to conduct our research for 365 days of the year replicating exact conditions throughout.
"The GroDome combines the best qualities of a greenhouse and a walk-in chamber and will be a major asset to our research".
Each chamber can be independently programmed to maintain specific temperatures and humidity levels and is equipped with supplementary lighting, which is controlled by the facilities building management system (BMS).
The BMS governs the unique cooling system and logs all the conditions within the facility, instantly reacting to any external climate changes.
Access to the BMS is via a dedicated web page, which allows authorised users to monitor the conditions within the chambers from any remote PC, and it is believed that this is the first occasion this particular technology has been used in the UK.
