From the Director

2005 was a seminal year for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA); the SKA science case was published; the site selection process moved forward with four proposals being received at the end of the year and comparative site characterisation for radio frequency interference being completed; over AUD150M of investment in SKA R&D and demonstrator projects was committed around the world; the funding agencies of interested governments met to discuss the project for the first time at Heathrow in June. In addition, the International SKA Steering Committee, the International SKA Project Office and its working groups have produced a detailed project plan and have defined an SKA reference design. In each of these areas Australia played a leading role; the Australasian SKA consortium submitted a proposal to site the SKA on the unique radio-quiet site at Mileura, WA; through its science investment process CSIRO supported Australia's 1% SKA Pathfinder - the extended New Technology Demonstrator (xNTD); and Australian scientists made up over one sixth of the total membership of the international SKA working groups.

2006 will be an equally critical year as the SKA project begins to address the issues that will lead towards the project having a more formal international structure, with strong engagement and participation by the funding agencies of the countries involved in this global project. An important step forward in this process began at an agency meeting in The Hague in February. At this meeting, agencies resolved not only to have regular six-monthly meetings on the SKA in the future, but also to establish a seven-member working group to consider issues of governance, site selection, and time scales. Indeed, it is the phasing of the funding time scales in the different contributing nations, whether it is for the 10% SKA Phase 1 or the full project, which is probably one of the greatest issues currently facing the SKA. The issue of site selection will also be brought to the fore in late 2006 with the International SKA Steering Committee's recommendation on SKA siting to be made in September 2006. Again, it is encouraging to note that, as a member of this seven-member agency working group, Australia continues to play a key role at all levels in this international project.

CSIRO ATNF has played a major role in Australia's involvement in the SKA. Through the Major National Research Facility (MNRF) program, it continues to make significant contributions to all aspects of the SKA, including next-generation correlator architecture via the Compact Array Broadband Backend, and to the critical small dish/focal plane array element of the reference design via the NTD/xNTD project. An equally important aspect of the design of the SKA is international collaboration. To that end, the recent successful commissioning of the methanol multibeam receiver, jointly built by the ATNF and Jodrell Bank Observatory, on the Parkes radio telescope, also serves as an excellent example of Australia's ability to work with international partners in the delivery of leading-edge technology solutions. The Compact Array Broadband Backend and the methanol multibeam also demonstrate the ATNF's commitment to extending the scientific capability of existing radio telescopes while continuing to look towards the next generation of radio astronomy facilities. This balance is not easy to achieve, and as the ATNF continues to look towards the future, we must ensure that investment in existing facilities continues to be directed towards capabilities that maintain world-class performance in targeted areas.

Brian Boyle
ATNF Director and Australian SKA Director
(Brian.Boyle@csiro.au)