Three more cooperation agreements in SKAO’s bag

BY ANIM VAN WYK (SKAO)

In a little over three months, the SKA Observatory (SKAO) notched up three cooperation agreements with different national research organisations.

The latest agreement, with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), was signed on 7 March. It took place a month after India’s National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) joined the SKAO’s fold on 2 February, while the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) had their turn in November 2021. This brings to five the number of such agreements since the SKAO was launched.

“The basic idea behind these agreements is that the project is already going full steam ahead while many countries have not managed to ratify the SKAO Convention yet,” explained the SKAO’s International Relations Manager Thijs Geurts. “Therefore it makes sense to have these interim agreements in place. They serve as a legal bridge until a country has completed the ratification of the Convention.”

The task force that paved the way for the SKAO Council had approved a template for cooperation agreements, he said. “We still use the template to this day and therefore the starting point of each cooperation agreement is the same. The process is also similar – we go back and forth on the text, but try to stick to the template as much as possible since we want the various cooperation agreements to be as similar as possible.”

However, as legislation and circumstances differ between countries, the SKAO must accommodate particular requests.

On the whole, the negotiation of a cooperation agreement takes a couple of months. They are meant to be a step on the ladder to full membership, enabling industry in a particular country to receive contracts in return for the country’s financial contributions to the SKAO.

Prof. Yashwant Gupta, Centre Director of India’s National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), holds a copy of the organisation’s cooperation agreement with the SKAO.

Credits: NCRA/Shilkumar Meshram & SKAO

The SKAO’s Director-General, Prof. Phillip Diamond (left), and Prof. Antoine Petit, President and CEO of the CNRS, after signing an agreement on behalf of their organisations.

Credit: SKAO

The President of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), Iain Stewart, during an online signing ceremony in November 2021.

Credit: SKAO