Impact

Italy’s Elemaster Group was awarded a €45m contract by the SKA Observatory to design and build a sophisticated digital processing system to digitise, correlate and combine signals from the SKA-Low telescope’s thousands of antennas in Western Australia.

The Power Adenco Joint Venture is the SKA Observatory’s main construction partner in South Africa, responsible for major civil infrastructure works such as the roll-out of power, fibre and roads on site, bringing with it much-needed employment opportunities for local communities.

The SKA Observatory has awarded two contracts in Sweden to deliver key hardware that will enable its SKA-Mid telescope in South Africa to receive and transfer signals from space: the Band 1 feed and the digitiser.

Listed infrastructure service provider Ventia was awarded a €125m contract over three years to deliver infrastructure for the SKA-Low telescope in Australia, a complex project in a remote location that is bringing employment and contractual opportunities for local and Indigenous people and businesses alike.

Hardware first developed by Spanish institutions and industry during the detailed design phase of the SKA project to provide time and frequency distribution for the telescopes has resulted in an industrial contract for the country and new opportunities.

Spanish company EMITE OTA test systems was awarded a €1m contract by the SKA Observatory to deliver a highly-specialised facility to test and qualify equipment in Australia, helping protect vital science observations.

EMSS Antennas is putting South African technical expertise at the heart of SKAO’s SKA-Mid telescope, leveraging almost 20 years of experience gained from developing technology for the KAT-7 and MeerKAT telescopes, an SKA precursor instrument, in close collaboration with the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO).

A newly formed consortium of Italian companies is combining decades of experience to manufacture a pivotal electromechanical component for the SKA-Mid telescope dishes in South Africa.

SIRIO Antenne, an Italian SME founded and run by the same family for the past 50 years, is central to the delivery of the SKA-Low telescope, having been contracted by the SKA Observatory to manufacture the telescope’s first 78,520 antennas over approximately 2.5 years.

Portuguese software company Atlar Innovation has grown from a SKA spin-off to an established specialist firm boasting contracts with the Portuguese Ministry of Defence.

Portuguese project develops renewable energy solutions for the SKAO’s remote telescopes.

The SKAO data challenges are driving innovation in software communities.

As an unprecedented mega-science project, SKAO has an unrivalled ability to inspire future generations

Revolutionary science facilitated by an SKA pathfinder telescope improves access to information that can mitigate crop failure and aid humanitarian response.

An Australian astronomy festival initiated by an SKAO partner organisation has grown into an annual celebration of all things celestial, visited by more than 40,000 people.

Education and training opportunities are equipping young people with essential skills in the era of Big Data.

The SKAO’s potential to fundamentally alter our understanding of the Universe has already inspired artists all over the world.

SKAO’s precursor telescope MeerKAT has generated significant investment in South Africa, supporting a cross section of the local and national economy

The SKAO is already worth far more to the United Kingdom than the government’s initial investment in the project.