Above: Screenshot of the first Council meeting, held virtually, on the 3-4 February
Dear Friends and Colleagues, You may not feel it, but this edition of Contact – its 7th edition – is published under a different era for the SKA. The long-awaited evolution of SKA Organisation to the SKA Observatory (or SKAO as we will call it) is now underway. On 15 January, SKAO finally ‘entered-intoforce’, that is, the legal entity existed, albeit as an empty vessel. On 3-4 February, the first Council meeting of SKAO was held, which was another dramatic step. The transition from SKA Organisation to SKAO will be complete in early May, when the staff and the assets formally transfer from one organisation to the other. The process of closing down SKA Organisation will then follow. As described elsewhere in this issue, the first Council meeting was held virtually. At this time, Council has six Members: Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa and the United Kingdom. However, the open session of the Council meeting was attended by representatives from ten other countries, which are all in various stages of preparing to join SKAO, some imminently, others on slightly longer timescales driven by their national processes. The Council had an immensely productive first meeting, with decisions and approvals flying thick and fast. Of course, these had all been well prepared in advance, this first meeting being designed to approve the various policies and regulations required to turn SKAO from that empty vessel I mentioned above to a fully
functioning organisation in May. Subsequent Council meetings will focus much more on preparing SKAO to enter the construction phase and subsequently approving the start of construction; you can read more about some of the work underway in an article below. As I write, preparations for the meeting ‘A Precursor View of the SKA Sky’ are well advanced; the meeting will take place from 15-19 March and is, naturally at this time, fully virtual. We have been pleasantly surprised at the level of interest in the meeting with, as of this morning, over 900 registrations, which far surpasses the number we would have seen for a physical meeting. Being virtual brings with it a number of challenges, not least coping with the rotation of the Earth. All talks are being recorded and will be transmitted twice, 12 hours apart, to enable participants across the world to attend at a time convenient for them. The scientific programme looks excellent and I hope all enjoy the meeting. I hope you and your families remain safe and well. Prof. Philip Diamond SKAO Director-General
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