South Africa and Australia will share the giant Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope project, AFP reported from the Netherlands on Friday.

The news agency quoted SKA board chairperson John Wommersley as saying that the SKA Organisation had decided on a “dual site approach”.

The announcement follows a meeting of the SKA five-country committee, comprising Canada, China, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK.

The €1.5-billion project will consist of 3 000 radio telescope dishes and will require between €150-million and €200-million a year for operations and maintenance, which will be funded by an international consortium that comprises 67 organisations in 20 different countries.