Sarah WildSouth Africa, struggling to contain economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, has cut $20 million from its budget for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
The cut was part of a 24 June budget announcement in which the country, anticipating severely reduced revenues and an increased need for health and social spending, slashed its science budget for the year by 16%.
The country’s major research funding agency, the National Research Foundation, also lost 10% of its government allocation, about $5.6 million (96.6 million rand).South Africa and Australia are hosting the SKA, which when completed in the 2030s will have a total collecting area of 1 square kilometer.