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SKAO membership update
from Contact 15
BY MATHIEU ISIDRO AND WILLIAM GARNIER (SKAO)
The start of the year has seen a number of countries progressing towards membership to the SKA Observatory. We look at where things stand as of April 2024.
After announcing its intention to join the SKAO last year, the Canadian government is in the process of finalising its accession as a full member. Canada will soon become the Observatory’s 10th member, marking another key milestone in its engagement in the SKA project, which goes back to the beginning of formal SKA activities in 1993 when the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Large Telescope Working Group was established.
The Christmas 2023 period also brought good news on the membership front, with both the German cabinet and the Indian government confirming their intention to join the SKAO a few days apart.
In Germany, the bill associated with membership of the SKAO has now passed both parliamentary chambers for the first reading unanimously, with all parties supporting the bill. The parliamentary procedure is expected to be finalised during May, marking the final step in Germany’s accession to the SKAO.
In India, following the government announcement, the SKAO Convention was signed on 28 March, kicking off the formal ratification process in the country. India has long contributed to the engineering and science behind the SKA project, and as it took part in the treaty negotiations that led to the creation of the SKA Observatory in 2019, India will therefore become one its founding members.
Good progress continues in South Korea, with the hope of engagement at some level in 2024. In Japan however, the SKAO was not selected to appear on the new Japanese research infrastructure roadmap despite widespread support facilitated by the SKA-Japan consortium. Engagement with the Japanese community through the consortium continues in order to identify future opportunities for collaboration until the revision of the roadmap in a few years’ time.
