The SARAO HCD Programme was established in 2005 to develop a community of scientists, engineers, technicians and artisans to ensure that SARAO fulfilled its mandate to design build, operate and exploit the MeerKAT and the SKA radio telescopes, and to secure South Africa’s return on its strategic investments in radio astronomy. The programme was devised in a structured and proactive way to be fit-for-purpose for enabling SARAO to deliver on this mandate.

Since its inception, over 1500 grants to postdoctoral fellows, postgraduate and undergraduate students doing science and engineering degrees and research at universities, and universities of technology, and students training to be artisans, have been awarded by SARAO – a significant return on South Africa’s investment in the international SKA effort, and the construction and operation of MeerKAT.