Freeze frame

The warm, leafy lanes of Cambridge

In fact, they live for winter. When it is 30 degrees celsius, they think 30 degrees below celsius. When people shop for swimsuits and straw hats, they buy winter clothing and snow-caps.

In the UK winter, many of the British public go south for the sun. Likewise, the BAS purchasers also "go south". But they keep going south, past the Mediterranean Sea and the batherpacked beaches of northern Africa. For BAS employees, "going south" means to the Antarctic, 10,000 miles away, to take advantage of the frozen continent's summer.

Antarctica's summer, from January to April, is the brief window of opportunity for supplying the survey's three stations on the continent. Everything needed for working there, including food, fuel and all manner of maintenance and repair materials, as well as delicate scientific equipment, must be itemised, prepared for shipping and then delivered to the BAS stations at this time.

The importance of the BAS supply chain cannot be overestimated, according to Ian Collinge, head of purchasing and shipping. "There is no such thing as Out of stock, it will be there in a week'. If it is not there when needed, then at the least a scientific experiment could be jeopardised, and at worst lives could be at risk."

The BAS is a research centre and part of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). It employs more than 400 people, of whom about 150 are scientists and another 50 are scientific support staff. About 220 people make up the administration and logistics division, of which Collinge and his team of five purchasers are a part.

With its annual budget of nearly 35 million, the BAS supports three stations in Antarctica ( see map overleaf). Halley V is on the Antarctic continent, Rothera is on the Antarctic Peninsula and Signy, which is part of the South Orkney Islands, is 600 kilometres off the extreme tip of Antarctica.

It also supports two other stations - Bird Island and King Edward Point - located within the sub-Antarctic South Georgia group of islands, about 1,400 kilometres south east of the Falkland Islands.

During the Antarctic summer, the BAS also operates two logistics facilities, especially for fuel, at Fossil Bluff and SkyBIu on the continent. Delivering the cargo to the icy continent takes a combination of aircraft, ships and "sno-cats", vehicles designed to move over snowy terrains.

BAS uses two types of Canadian-built airplanes, all propellor-driven, to fly between stations, fuel dumps and outposts. Four Twin Otters fitted with wheels and skis operate from Rothera and Halley, carrying usually only up to four people with die rest as cargo space. A wheels-only De Havilland Dash 7 provides die link from die Falkland Islands to Rodiera, carrying up to 16 passengers along with cargo. It also flies inland to blue-ice runways - flat areas where the snow is packed hard enough to be able to land with wheels.

Planes relieve die pressure on ship itineraries and allow flexibility in transporting staff. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) provides helicopter support from time to time for field parties.

However, most of die cargo is loaded on to the BAS's two ships at UK docks, still die main lifeline for the BAS. Running die ships takes up 29 per cent of the budget. Much of diat is for fuel, which has been hard to budget for owing to oil price fluctuations.

The RRS James Clark Ross carries 74 people, was built at die Swan Hunter yards in Newcastle and launched in 1990. It has advanced facilities for oceanographie research as well as cargo capacity. The BAS also has limited access to the Royal Navy's ice patrol vessel ITMS Endurance with its helicopters and logistical support.

The royal research ship RRS Ernest Shackleton carries 80 people and has space for carrying out scientific experiments, but it is mainly a logistics vessel used to resupply die stations.

The Shackleton entered service for the BAS in 1999. "It is a private finance initiative project," says Collinge. "The BAS has a 15-year contract, extendable to 20 years where die ship is Norwegian-owned but we crew and maintain it.

"We also charter it out for commercial use and share the profits with die ship owners. Space on board is precious because of the limited time to send goods south. Containers are used infrequently because there is too much wasted space between them and not enough flexibility in packing."

Ships take three weeks to reach Montevideo in Uruguay, around five days more to the Falklands and then anything from two weeks to two months to Halley Vi But sea ice conditions mean ships get anywhere between 12 and 20 kilometres close to Halley before cargo is offloaded on to sno-cats for the final journey.

"Delays to Halley are dependent on ice conditions," says Collinge. "One year, we couldn't get there at all and had to rely on contingency stores at stations and planes flying in people and essential cargo."

Collinge's team must be experts in managing stock under Antarctic conditions. For example, the nutritional aspect of food is vital. "You burn many more calories working in cold weather than in warm. You have to get it right or complaints come fast from people in the field."

One person handles complex contracts, such as that for medical services. The BAS has a 600,000 annual contact with Derriford Hospital, part of the Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust.

"The contract is for us to have doctors on call, medical equipment, drugs and dressings, but also it includes sophisticated 'telemedicine'. This is essential down south because it allows immediate access to medical personnel if people need help."

The BAS does not use e-procurement and e-auctions much. Rather, Collinge says, it takes advantage as far as possible of maintenance, repairs and operations contracts signed by the Research Councils' Procurement Organisation (RCPO), the Office of Government Commerce, and any other public procurement organisation.

"One example is that we piggyback on to an MoD contract for fuel in drums to the point where we buy more than the MoD does," he explains.

"Most MoD refuelling is now done from large storage tanks and holding areas. But we generally can't get a ship close enough to a research site in order to have a fuel storage facility. We have to use sno-cats to haul drums to the sites."

Drawing on existing contracts allows die survey team time to improve equipment, supplier capabilities and risk strategies that can directly affect scientific work.

But it's a balancing act between tapping into supplier innovation and buying a triedand-tested product that is more certain to arrive. For example, die team can now buy a lot of excellent off-the-peg clothing made with synthetic fibres.

"However, we must put our order into a supplier at least six months before we need the equipment. If a supplier fails, then we have to have the market knowledge to be able to get the equipment elsewhere as soon as possible. There is only one boat sailing. If we miss that, then no equipment means no experiment and the BAS fails."

High-tech equipment can mean big problems, says Collinge. While purchasers must be on the lookout for innovation from suppliers, they must also be careful of product complexity. Snowmobile and sno-cat design has advanced over the years. But too much complex electronics or complicated mechanics may make equipment more susceptible to breakdowns if used in harsh conditions and for long periods at a time.

"Equipment must to a high degree be reparable and easy to maintain within our base conditions," he says. "Again, a life could depend on a snowmobile working when it has to."

This sort of knowledge only comes through being in the field, something that all the survey's purchasers have done. Collinge, who began working as a BAS lab technician in 1971 - "I've been here an embarrassingly long time" - spent his first summer on Signy studying the microclimate of mossy areas.

"Without this hands-on experience, procurement would be an abstract exercise. This is not a number-crunching exercise you have to know what actually works instead of what you think is better but untested."

A good example of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" procurement is the Nansen sleds used to haul personal belongings as well as camping and scientific equipment. Fridtjof Nansen was a late-19th century Norwegian zoologist, artist and winner of the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize. He was also the first man to cross the Greenland ice cap and invented much scientific equipment, including sleds suited to harsh Arctic weather and treacherous travel conditions.

While Nansen's sled design is still around, die dogs who pulled them are long gone. The 1991 Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty meant that the dogs, as a nonindigenous species to the continent, had to leave because it was believed their faeces polluted the environment. The BAS's last 13 were flown out to a remote Inuit settlement on the eastern shore of Canada's Hudson Bay in April 1994.

The decision over sled dogs indicates just how deeply environmental issues affect work and play in the Antarctic. The BAS purchasers need a sophisticated reverse logistics operation to comply with the treaty. Nothing can stay permanently, especially hazardous waste. As a professional, Collinge has committed himself to being on an international committee that spot-checks bases of all nationalities to see they meet accepted standards of construction, waste disposal and working environments.

"What really made the BAS important was the discovery in the early 1980s of die hole in the ozone layer above the Antarctic," Collinge says. "This focused attention on the global importance of our work, theories on climate change and the potential threat posed by any rise in sea level."

This cargo-in, cargo-out policy means purchasers work closely with the BAS environmental section and are involved in all work. Packing out includes everything from human waste to hazardous waste. oil drums (to be reused), laboratory chemicals, battery acids - even a complete station too old for repair - are labelled, packed and made ready for the return journey.

A lot of returned goods are collected at the Cambridge site depot, where they are sorted, repaired, modified, stored for future use or renovated for resale. A huge discoloured truck, brown with age, and with bulbous five-foot high tyres, stands waiting to be picked up by its new owners. Collinge says: "If an item can be resold, it will be. A lot of the equipment is specially made in limited numbers for harsh, cold conditions, so it holds its resale value."

About 10 contractors have been cleaning up abandoned BAS bases to answer environmental concerns. But there is also another aspect to this clean-up, he says. Antarctic tourism is picking up. Between December 2003 and March 2004, a record 9,000 people and 100 ships visited the disused Port Lockroy site.

The Halley V station is literally on its last legs (see box) and will be removed when a new station is built. A design competition for Halley VI was recently held by die BAS, die Royal Institute of British Architects and die RCPO for a successor station, Halley VI, at a budgeted cost of 19 million. It attracted 86 entries from around die world.

A shordist of six teams was put together and each received a 10,000 "honorarium" for putting togedier a concept proposal, says Mike Wilson-Jarvis, procurement executive on die Halley VI Project Board and head of service at die RCPO.

"Three teams were commissioned to furdier develop dieir ideas with a contractor and a visit to die Halley site this mondi. Each team will receive 400,000 on completion of its work and the winning design will be announced in September."

The remit is non-prescriptive, says Malcolm Reading, architectural adviser to die BAS. He says die competition is getting die most innovative ideas out of bidders.

"Normally a competition winner is chosen by now. But by awarding the winning teams for developing dieir concepts with a contractor, die BAS ensures it gets the best possible buildings."

Purchasing for the BAS requires a belief in the value of scientific work, says Collinge. People in all departments are part of a wider team effort to get the job done. This makes for an intimate working experience not found in many organisations. This is why people stay a long time, says Collinge who has been head of purchasing for 10 of his 33 years at die BAS. But how does purchasing measure its success?

"Procurement and logistics allow personnel and equipment to get diere in die first place," he explains. "Scientists must then carry the ball to do die highest level of work. If so, dieir work gets published in recognised scientific and highly regarded journals. Our recognition for a job well done is measured by die fact diat around 200 papers get published each year."

Collinge says he is probably die last of die scientist-turned-purchasers. Most new recruits - and there hasn't been any for six years - are professional purchasers, usually with CIPS qualifications.

Even diough Collinge is now a purchaser, science is still close to his heart: "Did you know that the largest terrestrial organism in the Antarctic is a mite, no bigger than a pinhead?" he asks. "Most people think it is die penguin, but that is actually a sea bird."