1. A Draft Funding Model for the SKA
A Scenario Based on US SKA RFI
May 2009

2. What is a Funding Model?
A coordinated, coherent and equitable plan for the allocation and optimisation of funds to construction, operation and ultimately decommissioning of the SKA

3. Scope An option based on the US SKA RFI*
Integrates US SKA RFI and Astronet Infrastructure Roadmap
Phase 3 and decommissioning not in scope
Assumes 2014 site infrastructure construction start
* US SKA RFI submitted to the US Decadal Review Board in April 2009

4. Funding Proposal Construction Phase
Capital Cost €1670 M (Phase 1+Phase 2)
Phase 2 - 1/3 Split among Europe, Rest of World and USA
Phase 1 – Europe assumes 60% costs
Phase 1 – Host assumes 20% costs
Post PrepSKA Phase added
Phase 1 Construction starts 2015
Contingency costs included
[Insert link on wiki to view spreadsheet]

5. Timelines interposed Proposed SKA Timeline Feb 2009
Phase 1 funding request
Phase 2 funding request
External Engineering
Review of design
SSEC Site
Rec
SKA-mid+low
Complete
Phase 1 complete
Prod. Readiness Review
Pathfinder implementation
Pathfinder operations
Early Science SKA mid+low
SKA Ops
06 | 08 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 24 |
Concept Design
System Design
Detailed Design, Prod. Eng. &Tool’g
Full SKA mid + low construction and commissioning
Phase 1 Construction
EC-FP7: PrepSKA
System design
Funding
Governance Site Characterisation
Mobilisation Infra Plan’g
Concept design & for SKA-high
System design SKA-hi
SKA-high Construct
US TDP
SKADS
Proposed SKA Timeline Feb 2009
06 | 08 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 24
PrepSKA
Post
PrepSKA
€5 M
Phase 1
Phase 2
SKA-high Construct
Detailed
Design
€60 M
Costed
Design
Timeline as described in the US SKA RFI Apr 2009

6. Construction Civil Works €170 M Main building Small buildings
Land acquisition
Grading
Water
Roads
Power supply and back-up
Security
Antennae foundations
Power reticulation
Antennae and RF Systems
Antenna unit cost ~ €160 K
Receivers unit cost ~ €40 K
Signal Transmission €90 M
Trenching
Leasing dark fibre lines
Monitor and control
Clockwork distribution network
Signal Processing €100 M
Correlator Phase 1
Correlator Phase 2

7. Construction Software Development €100 M Observation preparation
Telescope operations
Monitor and control
Data handling, storage distribution
Calibration and imaging
Special data processing
Customisable from existing applications
Off-the-shelf applications
Draws on existing code
Requires 1000 Person years or people
Computing Hardware €150 M
Off the shelf ~ €30 M
Exaflop scale computer ~ €100 M
Data storage and distribution ~ €20 M
Data Integration + Testing €70 M
100 people
7 years
Project Management + Contingency
project management 10% of direct costs
Contingency 20% of direct costs

8. Operations US SKA RFI €150 M/yr: Astronet €10 M/yr for Phase 1
Power €50 M/yr
Personnel €50 M/yr
Materials & Services* €20 M/yr
IFCI
IWCI €30 M/yr
* Includes leasing dark fibre lines
Astronet
€10 M/yr for Phase 1
€100 M/yr for Phase 2

9. Not Known Treatment of Pathfinders Phase 3 costs
Time Value of money, currency fluctuations in exchange rates, etc.
Power costs

10. Issues Treatment of in kind contributions pre-construction
Selected site capex and opex impact
Impact of different governance models
Feasibility of capped costs approach