On the 12 Oct 2009 Senator the Hon Kim Carr (Australian Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) held a "SKA Reception" at the Australian High Commission, London bringing together leaders from the UK and some of Australia's leading scientists.
Senator Carr commented:
"It should therefore come as no surprise that the United Kingdom is one of Australia’s most important international research partners.
Papers with a UK co-author account for 10 per cent of our total publication output, making this country Australia’s second biggest collaborator after the United States.
What’s more, collaboration with the United Kingdom has more than doubled since the beginning of the decade, with over 20,000 joint publications in this time."
Commenting on Australia's contribution to SKA he said:
" ...we believe that Australia offers unique advantages for observing the radio spectrum. That’s why we are so excited about being part of the global effort to construct the Square Kilometre Array – the world’s most powerful radio-telescope.
We are proud that the Murchison Radio Observatory site in the Western Australian desert is one of two locations short-listed for the core of the array. I visited the site shortly before leaving for the United Kingdom, and its pristine isolation is absolutely stunning.
We are working closely with the many nations involved in this iconic project through the SKA Project Office in Manchester. We also have bilateral SKA cooperation agreements with Germany, Italy and our friends in South Africa, where the other short-listed core site is located.
He continued:
"The United Kingdom has demonstrated an equally strong commitment to the project – reminding us again just how close the scientific kinship is between our two countries.
Britain has announced that it will spend £15 million on SKA development work.
It chairs the key SKA policy body, the Agencies SKA Group.
It hosts the international SKA Program Development Office at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics. Its astronomers – at the University of Manchester, the University of Cambridge, and around the country – are intimately engaged in the European SKA Design Study.
And it is coordinating the preparatory effort that will draw on this and similar studies to develop a design for Phase 1 of the SKA and a deployment plan for the project as a whole.
Britain and Australia are already working in tandem to make this project happen, and it is my very sincere hope that we will be able to cooperate even more closely in the years ahead."