News Archive

The University of Western Australia today welcomed news that the United Kingdom Government will invest more than £100million ($185million) in the construction phase of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

The UK Science Minister David Willetts made the announcement earlier this week.

"After the International Space Station and the Large Hadron Collider the world's next great science project is the Square Kilometre Array," declared the Minister.

The SKA is a billion dollar global initiative to build the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope in Western Australia and southern Africa.

UWA's Professor Peter Quinn , Director of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), said "The SKA will be capable of studying the first objects to shine in the Universe, the very beginnings of the cosmic avalanche of growth that resulted in mankind some 13 billion years later."

Ten member countries, including Australia, the UK, South Africa and China, are collaborating to deliver the SKA, with more than 350 scientists and engineers from 100 institutions involved.

Premier and Science Minister Colin Barnett said in a media statement today that the SKA offered huge opportunities for Western Australia which would benefit enormously from the investment WA has made as well.

"This latest investment by the UK is great news for WA scientists," he said.

The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research is a joint venture between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia with significant support from the WA State Government.

The WA State Government recently committed $26million to ICRAR to lead the State's involvement in the SKA

ICRAR's involvement in the pre-construction period of the Square Kilometre Array (2013-2016) includes:

• Verification systems for the two million antenna low frequency portion of the SKA (SKA-low) that will be based in WA.
• Involvement in the design of the SKA's correlator, the part of the telescope that combines signals from the individual antennas.
• Design of the ambitious SKA computing system.

Media references

David Stacey (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716