Jodrell Bank to co-ordinate square kilometre array plans

The €1.5bn (£1.3bn) Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project is a collaboration between Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK.

After a competitive bidding process the board announced that the SKA Project Office (SPO) will be based at Jodrell Bank, where the design, engineering, costing and industrial collaborations will be planned and coordinated.

‘It would be fair to say it’s going to be the nerve centre and brains of the project until 2015,’ said Jo Bowler, from the SKA Program Development Office.

It is hoped that construction will then begin by 2016, most likely in South Africa or Australia, with the telescope expected to be complete by 2024.

‘There will be some kind of central office once the telescope is up and running in the host country itself and there are likely to be other regional centres around the world, but exactly how that works is not established yet,’ Bowler said.