Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom
Photo by: Duane Daws
Science and Technology Mininster Derek Hanekom earlier this week visited the UK’s Science & Technology Faculties Council’s (STFC’s) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) as part of an ongoing effort to further strengthen collaboration between the two countries, which were already linked through the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project.
The agreement to look for opportunities for further collaboration between the two countries came as part of a visit by UK Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts to the Karoo, where South Africa was building the 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope, a precursor to SKA, in September 2013.
“I have been most impressed by what I have seen and look forward to a strengthening of cooperation between South Africa and the facilities located at RAL,” Hanekom said during the visit.
Further, STFC national laboratories executive director Dr Andrew Taylor said, through collaboration, the countries could make “leaps and bounds in scientific and technological breakthroughs”, adding that the STFC looked forward to future opportunities with regard to working together that could flow from Hanekom’s visit.