Annual UK SKAO Science Committee Town Hall (27th & 28th October 2026)

We will cover SKAO Construction and Commissioning, ECR Science Highlights, a UK SV and KSP planning workshop and a UKSRC Workshop.
About this Event

The meeting aims to bring the UK SKA community together to provide information on science using the SKA Observatory (SKAO) and its pathfinders and precursors.

This year the meeting will run over two days and include sessions on the following topics:

• SKAO update on Construction and Commissioning (Tuesday 27th)
• Early Career Researcher Science Highlight Talks (both days)
• Workshop on UK ideas for Science Verification (SV) and Key Science Project (KSP) observations, led by Science Working Groups (SWGs) (Wednesday 28th)
• Workshop on the current infrastructure and future direction of the UK Science Regional Centre (UKSRC) (likely Tuesday 27th)

Early Career Researchers (ECRs; PhD/postdocs) are particularly encouraged to attend.

The meeting will be held at the Schuster Building at the University of Manchester's city centre campus, and will be offered as a hybrid event. Lunch will not be provided but refreshments will.

Speakers will include key representatives from the SKAO and the UK SKAO Regional Centre.

We encourage in person presence when possible. Please note that the event is expected to start mid-morning on Day 1 and run through the afternoon of Day 2.

Deadline for Town Hall registration is Tuesday 20th October

Please note the draft agenda below (which is subject to change in details but should be indicative). Further information including a detailed schedule will be available in due course.

Call for Abstracts:

We will include science highlight talks on SKA-relevant projects from Early Career Researchers (PhD students and Postdocs). These talks will be interespersed throughout the agenda to ensure as high a visibility as possible.

Abstracts deadline is set for Tuesday 29th September 2026, 5PM.

ECRs Travel Funding:

STFC has kindly provided funding for ECRs (PhD students and Postdocs) to help with travel and funding will be allocated based on needs, prioritizing ECRs from universities that have not received SKAO-related project funding.

ECR requests for travel support must be in line with UKRI’s business expense claims, business travel and subsistence policy and should be sent to Simon Haynes ([email protected]) and Jessica Atkinson ([email protected]) for consideration.

Requests should be no more than one page and should include:

• Your science interests
• The reason why you want to attend this event
• An estimate of the funding needed, and why it is needed

To ensure the astrocommunity mailing list reaches the widest audience, please can recipients of this email encourage their colleagues, in particular early career researchers, to sign up to the astrocommunity mailing list at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/ and to our the ukska-sciencecommunity list, which has a more targeted audience.

Please also feel free to join our UK SKAO Science Slack platform - - for general discussions.

This event is organised by the UK SKAO Science Committee and is also supported by STFC.
Please visit SKAO 's website here: https://www.skao.int/en


27th October

🕑: 09:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Arrival and Registration
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Welcome and Context
Host: Ian Harrison
SKAO Construction and Commissioning
Host: Stuart Whittley
🕑: 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM
Lunch
UKSRC Session
Break
🕑: 05:00 PM
End
28th October

🕑: 09:00 AM - 09:30 AM
Arrival
🕑: 09:30 AM - 10:30 AM
SKAO Science Verification
Host: Shari Breen
Break
Science Verification SWG Ideas
Host: SWG Representatives
🕑: 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM
Lunch
Science Verification SWG Ideas
Host: SWG Representatitves
SV and KSP Discussions
🕑: 04:00 PM
End