The Antarctic Base Juan Carlos I and the Antarctic Base Gabriel de Castilla form the Singular Scientific-Technical Infrastructure (ICTS) distributed BAE. Both bases are located in the South Shetland archipelago, on Livingston Island and Deception Island respectively. The two bases only remain operational during the southern summer, usually between November and March.
The Juan Carlos I Antarctic Base was inaugurated in 1988 and is managed by the Marine Technology Unit of the CSIC. The Antarctic Gabriel de Castilla Base was inaugurated in 1990 and is managed by the Spanish Army.
Access to the EBA is open and competitive and is regulated by an access protocol that prioritizes requests for the use of the infrastructure according to the scientific-technological quality of the proposals. For BAE, two types of access have been identified:
- R&D&I activities for national, European and/or international projects.
- Other activities, including social media, outreach, facility improvement projects and institutional visits.
The call for access for Antarctic campaigns will be open between January 1 and May 15 of each year.Applications for research activities outside the State Research Agency’s State R&D&I Program and other activities will be included here.