UWA, Curtin secure SKA design work

Western Australia's International Centre of Radio Astronomy Research is among the global research institutions to secure detailed design work on the $2 billion Square Kilometre Array radio telescope project, though the lion's share of the pre-construction work is set to be conducted overseas.

ICRAR, a joint venture between Curtin University and the University of Western Australia, will be directly involved in three of the 11 work packages awarded to consortia across the world.  

The total value of the design packages, announced this week, is estimated to be around $170 million.

ICRAR will collaborate with international colleagues to help design the SKA's science data processor, as well as the central signal processor which will form part of the SKA's powerful computing, storage and network system.

The system will process the terabytes of data per second produced by the SKA's antennas into information for astronomers.

ICRAR will also help design and test the antennas based in the remote town of Murchison, which will form the most visible part of the Australian SKA operations, known as SKA-low.

"The astronomy community has moved into the next exciting phase of work towards the SKA," ICRAR director Peter Quinn said.

"ICRAR is very much an important part of the SKA project and we can now start producing returns on WA's investment in the telescope via our contributions to three key areas of work."

ICRAR said it would lead the specialised infrastructure work for SKA-low and was set to collaborate with local industry on the Murchison site.

Premier Colin Barnett announced $26 million in additional funding for ICRAR in August, bolstering the $20 million in funding the state government had provided for the institution since its establishment in 2009.

"As the SKA enters its pre-construction phase, it is now more important than ever to work to leverage the maximum benefit from the SKA project work for WA," he said at the time.

"This will ensure WA companies and researchers become even more advanced and skilled in radio astronomy. It will also potentially result in spin-off benefits for other areas such as mining and computer sciences."