The government is doing a u-turn on paying up to $30 million towards the world's largest telescope, but some universities are not impressed.
Part of the Murchison Widefield Array of the ambitious Square Kilometre Array project in outback Australia. Photo: AFP
So far the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment has poured $2.3m into the construction of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) over the past three years.
New Zealand is part of the project of which 11 countries are full members of and put in a bid to have one of the telescope's sites built here, but missed out to Australia and South Africa.
Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment then advised a downgrade to associate membership of the project instead.
Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods agreed, saying most of the economic benefit New Zealand could gain from the project has already happened.
The associate membership will mean New Zealand can stay involved with the project and Canada and Germany were looking to do the same, she said.
However, Auckland University of Technology and Victoria University of Wellington, who had invested in the growth of radio astronomy, wrote to the minister urging against the downgrade in membership.
AUT SKA Alliance director Andrew Ensor said it could cause scientists who have moved to New Zealand specifically for the SKA to go elsewhere.
"If they want to advance beyond a certain point and gain prominence in their discipline, they'll have to consider moving to a full membership country, which would be a real blow for us," he said.
Professor Ensor said there were still economic opportunities to be had, and the IT industry has already committed money because of the project.
Full members were more likely to be given preference when it came to future contracts, he said.
However, Dr Woods said full membership was off the table.
"The decision has been made, it's been through Cabinet and Cabinet Committee, but I have met with people with AUT and invited them to sit down with official from MBIE to talk through the fact we're still negotiating what associate membership means," she said.
University of Auckland's head of physics, and one of the world's leading cosmologists, Richard Easther said he agreed with Dr Woods.
"I think it recognises the case that seeing the SKA as being primarily driven as an IT investment, simply didn't hold water and the cabinet papers show that," he said.
Associate membership provided an opportunity to finally create a strategy for astronomy in New Zealand, Professor Easther said.
The exact details of the associate membership and how much it will still cost is still to be decided.
Concerns around the Square Kilometre Array were first raised to RNZ by other astronomers in February.