Industry

The international Square Kilometre Array Organization (SKAO) issued a Request for Proposals (RfP) during March 2013 for participation in the SKA Pre-Construction Phase (until 2016). Formal responses are due by 10 June 2013.

Details of the RfP call are available here: http://www.skatelescope.org/publications/request-for-proposals/

For SA industry and institutions, please see below in order to:

A)    Partner with SKA South Africa in submitting a response to the RfP

B)    Apply for financial assistance from SKA South Africa on a shared cost, shared risk basis in order to facilitate participation in the SKA Pre-Construction Phase, for qualifying organisations

A) Request for Expressions of Interest for participation in the Square Kilometre Array Organisation Pre-Construction Phase work packages (2013-2016)

SKA South Africa is focusing its response to the SKA Organisation RfP in the following areas of the work breakdown structure:

§Assembly, Integration and Verification

§Infrastructure and Power

§Dishes 

§Central Signal Processor (Correlator / Beamformer)

§Telescope Manager (Monitor and Control)

§Science Data Processor 

§Signal & Data Transport (incl. Synchronization & Timing)

SKA South Africa invites the participation of South African industry and institutions to join with it in the bidding for and delivery of work packages. Alternatively, organisations may wish to deal directly with the SKA Office in Manchester, UK.

If your organisation is interested in participation with the SKA South Africa response, focused in the above areas in particular, please contact industry@ska.ac.za.

With your Expression of Interest response, please supply your areas of interest and the relevant capacity and skills in your organisation which can contribute to the selected work package/s. Note that participation will be dictated by the terms detailed in the template Consortium Agreement found with the RfP call.

Organizations fitting the participation criteria are encouraged to attend the SKA SA Information Day to be hosted at 13h30 on the 12th April 2013 at the SKA SA Johannesburg and Cape Town offices, linked via telecon for further discussions and information dissemination on the bid process, work package areas and the associated financial assistance programme. In order to attend the Information Day, please RSVP by 3 pm on Tuesday 9th April to industry@ska.ac.za and note that places may be limited.

In order to participate in the SKA South Africa bids, SKA South Africa requests responses before 17h00 on 22 April 2013 (SAST).

SKA South Africa will enter into discussions with respondents to the Expression of Interest as to what role they are able to play in the consortia which will be formed to bid for the work packages of the SKA Organisation. The commencement of work will be conditional upon SKA South Africa and its partners, or the various consortia in which they are participating, being awarded the work packages.

Note: Participation in these work packages will be self-funded unless your organisation qualifies for and is awarded financial assistance on a shared cost, shared risk basis from SKA South Africa.

B) Request for Applications to pre-qualify for the provision of financial assistance by SKA South Africa for participation in the Square Kilometre Array Organisation Pre-Construction Phase work packages

Industry or institutions with appropriate existing expertise and interest may be eligible for financial assistance on a shared costs, shared risk basis for them to participate in the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Pre-Construction Phase. The intention of the provision of financial assistance is to encourage South African industry and institutions to participate in the SKA Pre-Construction Phase work packages in order to gain expertise and skills in advanced technologies and to develop their international competitiveness, strengthening prospects of larger benefit to South Africa.

Pre-Qualification Applications for financial assistance are invited from registered South African Industry organisations and institutions to participate as partners in the SKA South Africa response to the Request for Proposal for the Pre-Construction Phase of the SKA project in the following areas:

Work areas targeted for financial assistance:

• Dishes: SKA South Africa has built up significant experience in this area through the KAT-7 and MeerKAT dish and receiver development work and intends to play a strong role in this work package for SKA in the areas of dish optics studies and receiver development. Industry and institutional participation is invited with design experience on Radio Telescopes, Radar Systems or Communication Antennas and proven Mechanical Design and Analyses capability and/or Proven Control System Experience.

• Central Signal Processor (correlator/beamformer): Developments for MeerKAT have established world leading expertise in the hardware and software of reconfigurable computing (ROACH) and associated correlator development. There are opportunities for industry and institutions to develop expertise and know-how in digital technologies for the SKA and broader applications. Experience is necessary in the one or more of following areas: System Engineering, Digital Design, Hardware Design, Leading Edge FPGA Design, EMC Qualification, High Speed Networking (10G, 40G and/or 100G).

• Science Data Processor: The Science Data Processor (SDP) is likely to be a major component of the SKA, which will be upgraded over the lifetime of the SKA Observatory. Given the scale of the data challenge posed by the SDP, a substantial research effort into energy efficient high performance computing and cost-effective data storage will be needed. The unique combination of factors present in the SDP area offer great potential for disruptive and innovative solutions to be developed into functional products.

• Signal & Data Transport and Synchronization & Timing: Significant expertise has already been established in this area with the KAT-7 and MeerKAT. Data transport technologies are being developed for the SKA which could have wider commercial benefit in the medium to long term. Industry participation may also introduce alternative solutions.

SKA South Africa will facilitate the introduction of assistance programme partners into the appropriate work package consortia.

Should you feel your organisation may qualify for financial assistance and wish to apply to partner in the programme to work on one or more of the four areas listed above, please submit the Pre-Qualification Application form for financial assistance (available below) for consideration together with your Expression of Interest to participate in the SKA Organisation’s work packages. All financial assistance for work on the delivery of the work package deliverables will be conditional on the work packages being awarded to consortia of which SKA South Africa and its partners are members.

Pre-Qualification Application forms for financial assistance should be submitted to industry@ska.ac.za by 17h00 on 22 April 2013 (SAST), together with your Expression of Interest. SKA South Africa reserves the right not to award financial assistance to some or all applicants.

Files attached to this page for download:

- the Pre-Qualification Application Form for financial assistance (MS Word format)

- text of this web page (PDF format)

For more background information relating to SA industry involvement in SKA, please see the video recordings and presentations from the 7 Feb 2013 SKA SA Industry Day.