Since 1985 the Netherlands is a member of the international Ocean Drilling Programme . The NWO Division for Earth and Life Sciences pays an annual contribution in order to give researchers the opportunity to conduct drillings into the ocean floor with drilling vessels and make accompanying measurements. The objective is to strenghten the participation of the Netherlands in international plate tectonics research, in the reconstruction of the palaeoclimate, and in research into micro-organisms. From 2004 onwards, the Dutch participation runs through the European Consortium on Ocean Drilling (ECORD).