Message from the Chief Executive Officer of the National Research Foundation (NRF), Prof Fulufhelo Nelwamondo – SARAO Anniversary Report
This anniversary report celebrates 20 years of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project in South Africa, which coincides with the fifth anniversary of the launch of the MeerKAT radio telescope.
These two projects are part of a realisation of Government’s science and technology policies and strategies over the last two decades. These policies and strategies strengthened investments in astronomy and positioned South Africa as an important and strategic partner to the global astronomy community. The local design, manufacture and construction of the MeerKAT telescope by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRF-SARAO) underscores South Africa’s technical and engineering competence, and has enhanced the country’s international reputation as a partner and destination for science and technology investment and collaborations.
This has been realised through the hosting of the future SKA MID telescope, currently under construction. The MeerKAT telescope continues to receive scientific accolades from across the world, having enabled several groundbreaking discoveries since it was launched in 2018. Many of these discoveries have been delivered by the local astronomy community, which has grown exponentially and transformed over the last decade to become globally competitive. Having proved its technical and engineering prowess, what role can South Africa play over the next 50 years of the life of the SKA project? To answer that question, South Africa has already positioned itself as a hub for data processing.
Developed economies have increasingly embraced knowledge creation as way to secure their competitive advantage and are spending large amounts of money on education to produce highly skilled graduates who can thrive in a world increasingly driven by technology and innovation. Through a strategic human capital development programme, South Africa, too, has been training a cohort of graduates who contribute to the knowledge economy through the use of their skills in various sectors. Moreover, the SKA project in South Africa is in the process of building a supercomputer with the capacity to store the astronomical data generated by the MeerKAT radio telescope. With more dishes expected to be added in future, more data will be produced and processed locally, and this stands to contribute to South Africa’s efforts to become a knowledge-based economy. From the experience gained over the past 20 years and through its own computer software and data storage facilities, NRF-SARAO is expected to monetise its intellectual property on how to build supercomputers which are currently not readily available in the market. This aligns with the NRF’s plan to raise R10 billion in the next five years through the commercialisation of our intellectual property. I wish to thank all members of the NRF-SARAO team, past and present, for their valuable contribution to this important and critical milestone in South Africa’s astronomy history.
Prof Fulufhelo Nelwamondo
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Executive Officer of the National Research Foundation (NRF), Prof Fulufhelo Nelwamond
