Astron, the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy is building LOFAR, the low frequency array, which is designed to open up a new part of the electro-magnetic spectrum to astronomical inspection for an overall cost of €148 million (A$249 million).

    In addition to the €52  million Astron received from the Netherlands' Government it got €22 million from the region of Drenthe.

Sheer far sighted enlightened self-interest on the part of Dutch politicians?

Not quite.  Astron’s director Harvey Butcher promised that there would be worthwhile "spillovers" to give the governments worthwhile bragging rights.

When the technicians laid the optical fibre to carry the telescope’s data to the central processing centre, they also installed fibres to villages in the region that didn’t have broadband Internet access.

In addition, Nature reports, "'We provide a USB port in these fields. You hook your sensor in,' explains Eugene de Geus, LOFAR’s managing director. There are plans for networks of seismometers, infrasound detectors, weather sensors to provide microclimate data for farmers and wind sensors to improve the models used by northern Europe's wind farms. 'Every audience we talk to thinks of something different we could do,' says Butcher."