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| ICRAR | |
|---|---|
| Name | ICRAR |
| Established | 2009 |
| Type | Research centre |
| Director | (see Governance and Funding) |
| Location | Perth; Curtin University; University of Western Australia |
| Fields | Radio astronomy; astrophysics; engineering |
ICRAR The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research is a joint Australian research centre hosted by Curtin University and the University of Western Australia. It concentrates on radio astronomy, instrumentation, and data-intensive science connected to major projects such as the Square Kilometre Array, the Murchison Widefield Array, and the Australian SKA Pathfinder. ICRAR engages with international partners including the European Southern Observatory, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and the CSIRO while contributing to scientific programmes intersecting with observatories like Atacama Large Millimeter Array, Very Large Array, and Low-Frequency Array.
ICRAR brings together teams working on hardware, software, and theory to support facilities such as the MeerKAT and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, and to analyse data from instruments like the Gaia satellite, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Researchers at ICRAR publish in venues connected with the Royal Astronomical Society, collaborate with institutes such as the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, and participate in international projects led by groups at the University of Cambridge, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology, and the Oxford University.
ICRAR was established during a period of global investment in the Square Kilometre Array programme, linked to national initiatives including the Australian Government’s science policies and the Western Australian Government’s support for the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. Early milestones included partnerships with the CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science division, engagement with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, and technical collaborations with industry partners like Cisco Systems and Atos. Founding activities intersected with conferences such as the International Astronomical Union General Assembly and the SKAWeek series, and with community events like the Perth Festival where public outreach featured installations referencing the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre.
ICRAR scientists contribute to cosmology topics connected to the Lambda-CDM model, studies of dark matter and dark energy via surveys like those run on the ASKAP telescope and the Murchison Widefield Array, and pulsar science relevant to projects at the Parkes Observatory and the Jodrell Bank Observatory. Instrumentation projects relate to phased array feeds as used on Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope upgrades, beamforming techniques similar to developments at the Australian Telescope Compact Array, and signal processing methods pioneered at institutions like the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Data science efforts link to machine learning groups at the University of Oxford Machine Learning Research Group, the University of Cambridge Machine Learning Group, and computing facilities such as the European Grid Infrastructure and the Amazon Web Services research grants.
ICRAR staff operate from campuses associated with the University of Western Australia in Perth and Curtin University’s campus in Bentley, with proximity to the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. Instrumentation labs house testbeds used in collaboration with companies such as Thales Group, Boeing, and Airbus, and prototype deployments linked to engineering teams at the CSIRO DAPRA and national metrology institutes like National Measurement Institute (Australia). Computing infrastructure integrates HPC clusters comparable to those at the National Computational Infrastructure and data management practices influenced by the European Southern Observatory Science Archive Facility.
ICRAR runs postgraduate and summer student programmes in partnership with universities including the University of Adelaide, the University of Sydney, the Monash University, and the Australian National University. Outreach activities have included exhibitions tied to the Perth Observatory and public lectures given in venues such as the Perth Concert Hall and events coordinated with the Royal Society of Western Australia and the Australian Space Agency. Training initiatives connect with professional development offered by the International Astronomical Union, workshops organized by the American Astronomical Society, and citizen science projects inspired by platforms like Zooniverse and collaborations with the Perth Science Festival.
ICRAR’s governance involves university-led boards with links to Curtin University and the University of Western Australia, and interacts with national funding bodies such as the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council for interdisciplinary projects. Funding streams include grants from agencies like the European Research Council, philanthropic support similar to foundations such as the Carnegie Institution for Science and the Wellcome Trust, and industry partnerships with technology firms including Intel, NVIDIA, and Google DeepMind. Strategic oversight aligns with international SKA governance structures involving entities like the SKA Organisation and national consortia represented by countries such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and South Africa.
ICRAR collaborates with observatories including the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, and the Green Bank Observatory; research centres such as the CSIRO’s Astronomy and Space Science division and the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics; and universities including Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Toronto, ETH Zurich, Peking University, Tsinghua University, University of Tokyo, and Seoul National University. Industry and governmental partnerships involve agencies like the Australian Space Agency, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (Australia), and multinational corporations including IBM, Microsoft Research, and Siemens.
Category:Astronomical research institutes