22 October 2021

Openings for Swedish companies in SKA project

Chalmers' acceptance as a cooperative entity in relation to the intergovernmental organisation SKA Observatory means that Swedish high-tech companies will now be able to submit tenders for contracts allocated to Sweden.

Chalmers will now be leading Sweden’s participation in the project to build the world's largest radio telescopes. The first stage covers the next two years, giving time for Sweden to establish its formal membership in the international organisation.

Membership in the SKA Observatory enables Swedish science and industry to become involved in building these unique telescopes.

Patrik Carlsson
Co-Director Big Science Sweden

As the project develops, demand will grow for suppliers with specialist expertise in areas such as IR detectors, data collection, time synchronisation, big data, and machine learning.

When the SKA telescopes are operational, they will generate data in quantities that make what today counts as 'big data' look small. The new agreement gives a green light for the establishment in Sweden of one of SKAO's regional data processing centres. These centres are designed to handle the flood of data from SKA’s telescopes and supply final data products to astronomers.

Chalmers awarded key role in project to build the world's biggest radio telescopes