With PEARL, we really got started back in 2003, 2004 and 2005, when we got funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. That allowed us to install the equipment at existing Environment and Climate Change Canada buildings and then bring up some containers and set up two other facilities. We have three facilities at Eureka. It was the CFI that really enabled that at the beginning.
We then got six years of funding from the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, which no longer exists. That gave us stable funding for six years and enabled us to keep operations going and do the science.
There was a gap for about a year or so, and then we were very fortunate to get funding under the NSERC climate change and atmosphere research program, or CCAR, which was a one-off. There were seven lucky winners, and we got funding from that, which we were able to stretch out to 2021, when, because of the COVID pandemic, our expenses went down and we weren't able to travel up so far.
We also got funding from the International Polar Year in 2007 and 2008, and some funding from the Arctic research infrastructure fund.
Those were five of the big funding programs, several of which don't exist any more: CFCAS, CCAR and IPY don't exist any more.
We've also received funding—regular funding—from the Canadian Space Agency, because we do validation of satellite data. They've been a very valuable funding partner. Also, Environment and Climate Change Canada, because we're working at their facility, helps with some of the power costs, which is not an eligible expense under NSERC and other programs.
Over the last 20 years, we've written many proposals. They have not all been successful, but enough have been. The challenge is that every funding program has its own requirements, and for those that require you to have community engagement, it's very hard to do that where we are.
Our expenses are high. We try to piggyback on Environment and Climate Change Canada's monthly produce charters that bring food up to the station, but if we were to charter our own flights a couple of times a year, they're more than $50,000 a pop. Then, to have someone on site, staying at the station, which is the only place—there's no community there; it's just the weather station—costs over $450 a day for food and accommodation. When you send up half a dozen students for a few weeks, the costs add up.
Having programs that recognize the costs of being in such a remote location is really quite critical.