SKAO holds inaugural annual programme review

BY SKAO

Earlier this month, forty people plus remote attendees convened in the SKAO Council Chamber for the first ever annual programme review meeting, which took a comprehensive look at how the construction execution on the SKA-Low and SKA-Mid facilities was progressing.

It provided an opportunity for an independent panel of experts to assess whether the SKAO is on-course to deliver an operating observatory.

Ahead of the full report being finalised, Dr Adrian Russell, Chair of the Review Panel and Director of Programmes for the European Southern Observatory, pointed to a rosy future with a very positive verbal summary. He said: “It’s absolutely clear, as we expected, that it has been extremely well organised. The willingness of people to be totally open and discuss issues has been absolutely fantastic.

“I think every single person that was involved should be extremely proud of what they’re achieving.”

Deputy SKAO Director-General Dr Joe McMullin said: “It was an extremely helpful meeting for us. The panel is deeply experienced in deploying large research infrastructures and they were able to efficiently review both the documentation and the summary presentations to highlight areas that are going well, and need to be maintained, as well as areas to focus improvements as we continue forward. We will integrate their recommendations into our planning to continue to improve our execution.

“These reviews will continue to be vital as the SKAO progresses through construction.”