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Benefits of Research Infrastructures beyond Science - The Example of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a $1 billion+ international project to create a radio telescope incorporating a receiving surface of a million square metres, fifty times larger than the biggest receiving surface now in existence.

This huge surface will be composed of many small antennas, divided into a dense inner core array which becomes more diffuse with increasing radius. The SKA was conceived as a new international project to meet the future needs of radio astronomers. It will be use to address some of the more fundamental questions in contemporary physics and astronomy; including the nature of the first stars in the Universe, the cosmic history of the Universe, the nature of Dark Matter and Dark Energy, theories of gravity and black holes and the origin of cosmic magnetism.

Beyond the internationally agreed SKA key science projects, several benefits in terms of capacity and capability enhancement, as well as direct economic and indirect societal impacts are expected.

The purpose of this workshop was to present key data from the SKA project as an example of an international research infrastructure project to a selected group of European and global business, government and stakeholder officials.

The goal of this strategic workshop was to improve the understanding of boundary conditions and exchanging best-practice experiences that will positively influence SKA policy and assist in the development of business cases to industry and governments, around the SKA project.

Steering Committee

• Simon Berry - Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK
• Louis Brennan - Trinity College, IE
• Phil Crosby - SKA Program Development Office SPDO, UK
• Marco de Vos - ASTRON, NL
• Philip Diamond - University of Manchester, UK
• Bernie Fanaroff - South Africa Project Office, ZA
• Martin Gallagher - Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research DIISR, AU
• Martin Grabert - COST Office, BE
• John Humphries - Australian SKA Industry Consortium, AU
• Justin Jonas - SKA South Africa, ZA
• Jonathan Kings - Investment New Zealand, NZ
• Gian Mario Maggio - COST Office, BE
• Corrado Perna - National Institute for Astrophysics INAF, IT
• Magda Radwanska - COST Office, BE
• Elena Righi-Steele - DG Research - European Commission, BE
• Nigel Rix - Electronics Knowledge Transfer Network, UK
• Richard Schilizzi, SKA Program Development Office SPDO - UK
• Julia Stamm - COST Office, BE
• Jim Ulvestad - National Radio Astronomy Observatory NRAO, US
• Patricia Vogel - Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, NL

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