More than £15million has been awarded to UK institutions, including The University of Manchester, which are delivering the crucial software ‘brain’ of the world’s largest radio telescope.

The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) is set to explore the evolution of the early Universe and delve into the role of some the earliest processes in fashioning galaxies like our own Milky Way, among many other science goals.

From its headquarters based at The University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK, the SKAO will oversee the delivery and operations of two cutting-edge, complementary arrays with 197 radio telescope dishes located in South Africa and more than 130,000 low-frequency antennas in Western Australia.

Professor Ben Stappers leads the Manchester team developing the Pulsar Search software. This programme will enable some of the most exciting SKAO experiments, testing General Relativity and aiming to detect Gravitational Waves.

The University of Manchester will also lead the development of the software for the Monitor, Control and Calibration System of the SKA-LOW telescope. This telescope will be an array of over 130,000 antennas, which will, amongst other experiments, detect the very first stars to be born in the Universe.