Minister Pandor hopes Brazil and Russia will soon join the SKA project
The South African Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, expressed the hope that Brazil and Russia would soon join the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project – the world's biggest radio telescope and one of the signature global science projects of the 21st century – which will be built in South Africa and Australia.
Currently, only China and India are members of the Square Kilometre Array project.
Minister Pandor made the remarks at the second Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) Science, Technology and Innovation Ministerial Meeting currently underway in Brasilia in Brazil.
The BRICS science, technology and innovation ministers are meeting inter alia to sign the BRICS Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which will serve as a strategic intergovernmental framework.
Minister Pandor said members could be "collectively proud that the MoU would be one of the first thematic intergovernmental agreements concluded between the BRICS partners."
She added, "Astronomy is arguably the flagship science and technology success story of democratic South Africa, and South Africa will be leading the BRICS SKA cooperation."
Minister Pandor reminded her colleagues that South Africa was building the MeerKat, the SKA precursor that would eventually be integrated into the SKA, but until then it would, in its own right, be one of the most powerful radio telescopes in the world.
"The world’s leading radio astronomers, including those from BRICS countries, have already been allocated time for pioneering observation missions to be conducted with the MeerKAT. These observations will expand our understanding of the universe and will be frontier science in the truest sense of the word," said Minister Pandor.
Minister Pandor lauded the continued role that South Africa was playing in the science, technology and innovation programmes of the African Union. "We were the founding chair of the African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology, and over the past decade we have invested significantly in pan-African initiatives such as the African Laser Centre and the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences."
In conclusion, Minister Pandor said that South Africa had numerous bilateral science and technology partnerships with partner countries across the African Continent as they sought to harness forces to implement the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa initiative.
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