African leaders unite to support the SKA bid

At the eighteenth African Union Summit held in Addis Ababa in January, the supreme organ of the Union expressed its support for the African Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. Expected to be operational by 2025, the SKA will be a revolutionary radio telescope that will allow scientists to address many of the fundamental, unanswered questions about the universe we live in.

As the prime representative body for 54 African states, the Union declared its full support for the African bid for the groundbreaking SKA project. With the decision on where to site the SKA expected in following months, the heads of state and government recognized the importance of large scientific infrastructures for Africa.

In its decision the Assembly of Heads of State and Government endorsed the African bid to host the SKA and welcomed the progress made by Republic of South Africa in submitting the final bid documents to the Founding Board of the SKA. The assembly also expressed its gratitude to eight other countries participating in the bid – Botswana, Ghana, Namibia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Kenya and Zambia – for providing diplomatic, regulatory, technical and logistical support.

Heads of State and Government recognized the potential that investments in different radio astronomy infrastructures and projects in Africa, such as the planned Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network, have to enhance continent’s science and technology capacities. With this in mind the inclusion of Radio Astronomy was proposed as a priority focus area for Africa’s international science and technology partnerships, such as the Eighth Africa-European Union Partnership on Science, Information Society and Space.

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