The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Organisation is considering changing its governance structure from that of a corporation to a treaty organisation. This could possible mean better financial support in the future, in addition to giving the organisation diplomatic privileges.
According to William Garnier, communications and outreach manager at the organisation, preliminary investigations have taken place towards looking into an evolution of the current governance structure. "There are no immediate plans to change the structure but, again, we are looking at various options for the long-term. The current structure is adequate and appropriate for the design phase," he says.
The SKA final design teams were last month bringing the project a major step closer to the start of construction. More than 350 scientists and engineers, representing 18 nations and drawn from nearly 100 institutions, universities and industries, will be working on the detailed design phase of the world's most sensitive and powerful telescope.
Garnier declined to elaborate on the reasons for the move, but it is believed the organisation hopes to improve financial commitments for the project. The Department of Science and Technology's representative to the European Union, Daan du Toit, has been quoted as saying diplomatic privileges would remove tax on SKA officials and equipment. The move to a treaty organisation would likely take several years to negotiate.
The SKA is an international project to build a mega telescope that will be 50 times more sensitive and produce 10 000 times the survey speed of the best current-day telescopes. Its core will be located in SA, with a smaller array sited in Australia.
MeerKAT, the precursor to the SKA that is set to be incorporated into the SKA phase one, is expected to come online in 2016. Construction on SKA phase one is expected to start in 2018.
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