SA will push for a decision on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope at the next SKA organisation meeting, says science and technology minister Naledi Pandor.
SA is up against the Australia-New Zealand joint submission in a bid to host the telescope, which will be the largest in the world. An announcement on the winning bid was supposed to be made in April, but the organisation decided to look into options for an inclusive approach, where value from both bid investments will be used.
“It is important to maximise the value from the investments made by both candidate host regions,” said the organisation. As a result, a small scientific working group will be set up to explore “options” to achieve maximum value. The working group will report back to the organisation's members this month. Its report will provide additional information to facilitate the site decision for SKA.
During her budget vote speech yesterday, Pandor said she had hoped the speech could be used to inform Parliament of the final site decision on the location of the SKA.
June final
The department has allocated over R500 million to the SKA in this financial year.
“We were also pleased that the minister of finance has agreed to exempt the SKA from VAT should we secure the bid,” added Pandor.
“The SKA board is meeting next week to consider the report of the scientific working group. I must emphasis though that, as we have done many times before, we would want a decision no later than June this year.”
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