Social equity

The diversity of Team SKA is a major strength, and we are keen to ensure that different nationalities, backgrounds and life experiences are represented, that a diversity of voices are heard, whether it be within the makeup of our staff, or at our events, in communications products or other outputs.

On the recruitment front, the majority of SKAO roles are advertised internationally, and 29 nationalities are represented across our facilities. We aim to become an employer of choice for women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), and to achieve gender balance amongst staff and participants in SKAO activities. Towards this goal, and to break down pervasive stereotypes about working in STEM, we are working to ensure that women are supported, and their contributions celebrated. 

An EDI Taskforce, established in 2022, developed an implementation plan which was endorsed by the Observatory’s director-general and senior leadership. It identified a set of specific actions targeting activities across the Observatory, including within recruitment, meetings, data monitoring, accessibility and communications. As part of this, the Observatory routinely details the gender split across its job families – science, engineering, project management and business enabling – in its annual report.

We also mark a range of EDI awareness days – both internally and externally – including International Day of Women and Girls in Science, International Women in Engineering Day, and Pride Month. A regular programme of talks – the Speaker Series –  is open to people across the SKAO and its partners, giving a platform to a diverse range of speakers. In 2024, this included a month of talks delivered by women as part of celebrations around the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

We are also working to deliver equity of access to SKAO activities, including how telescope time is allocated; using dual anonymous, distributed peer review as a key part of the process is currently under discussion.

Delivering the best, highest impact science requires accessible and equitable processes and tools which support the broadest possible SKA scientific user community. This commitment is being built into the design of all user-facing SKA products, including those required for the preparation and submission of scientific proposals, associated documentation, user guides, and in the assessment of proposals and allocation of telescope time.

This is already evident in the development of SKAO software; the first version of the SKAO sensitivity calculator, which scientists will use to determine how much observing time they require for their proposals, was released to the community in 2023. Accessible features were paramount when designing the interface, which is uncluttered, compatible with screen readers, and features light and dark modes. The SKAO is seeking feedback from the community to increase its accessibility further – users can send comments to sciops@skao.int.

Working with local and Indigenous communities

At a local level, our partner organisations CSIRO in Australia and SARAO in South Africa have been working closely with the people living and working around the telescope sites for many years, including Indigenous communities. The land on which the SKA telescopes are being constructed, in both Australia and South Africa, has strong ties to Indigenous heritage; respecting these cultures and the local populations, and ensuring that Indigenous history, culture and traditions are respected, preserved and celebrated as an intrinsic part of the SKAO.

As such, we are committed to being a good neighbour by building on the initiatives already in place and to developing new ones, with the goal of sharing a harmonious and fruitful partnership with local and Indigenous communities. Right from the start of the construction phase of the telescopes, as part of delivering on the Observatory’s “social licence to operate”, we have ensured conditions are in place to ensure local community participation and support the uplift of the local economy around our telescope sites.

In South Africa, contractors, including those providing the major infrastructure elements, are expected to source goods and services from vendors and providers in the local area around the SKA-Mid site, focusing first on the four towns surrounding the site (Carnarvon, Brandvlei, Vanwyksvlei, and Williston), and then beyond.

As a concrete demonstration of the success of such initiative, in the year following the start of on-site construction, our infrastructure contractor has employed 56 local community members from the four towns to work on site, and the number is expected to increase as construction activities ramp up (noting that 38% of these community members are women and 55% are aged between 18-35 years old).

In Australia, alongside CSIRO, we have run several recruitment events in Geraldton together with the Wajarri Yamaji Aboriginal Corporation, to begin building a pipeline of candidates in the region. This led to concrete results and in early 2024, the SKAO hired its first cohort of field technicians consisting of 10 people from the region around the SKA-Low telescope site, seven of whom are Wajarri people. The goal of this programme is to equip them with the skills they need to deploy the antennas on site, which can also be potentially applicable to other industries (mining, telecommunications, etc.). This team will grow during 2024.

The results of major SKA-Low infrastructure contractor Ventia’s plan for extensive regional and Wajarri engagement has also borne fruit. Five locally based Wajarri companies have been engaged by Ventia to provide maximum benefit to Indigenous small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the region and in consultation with the SKAO, the contractor implemented a Wajarri engagement initiative to encourage direct employment of Wajarri staff, as well as encouraging their subcontractors to do the same. As a result, our contractor has consistently exceeded 20 - 25% Wajarri employment on site. In addition, there has been significant engagement with local and regional SMEs and overall, we have awarded contracts or established accounts with more than 80 businesses in Geraldton and the Mid West region.