Welcome to our new website!

You are now witnessing 18 months of development capturing more than 100 people’s input – the brand-new SKA Observatory website.

Built by Dutch digital agency Betawerk, the website matches the visionary concept of the new SKAO brand as well as the observatory’s ambition and status as an intergovernmental organisation.

The new website was officially unveiled by the chair of the SKAO Council, Dr Catherine Cesarsky, at the Council’s July meeting.

“Developing the new SKAO website has been no easy feat,” said Joseph Diamond, communications and outreach officer and lead for the website project. “We had countless meetings with most parts of the observatory to refine requirements, then developed and checked content, commissioned visuals, fixed bugs, and liaised with the wider SKAO network to ensure that the website would cater to our members and international audience.”

Betawerk received the website contract following a competitive international procurement process.

“We are very excited about the new website!” said Betawerk director, Martijn Hermans. “We felt it was our mission to deliver an online platform which inspires and engages people worldwide. It was great to work with the tremendous dedicated SKAO team and we are thankful for the contribution we were able to make to this extraordinary endeavour.”

The SKAO and Betawerk team emphasised accessibility to all, including catering to visitors with low bandwidth connections. The new website only provides a taste of what is to come, though! Expect more functionality and content, including animations, videos, and translations into 12 languages used in the SKAO’s member and prospective member countries.

(If you encounter any issues with the website in these early days, let us know.)