Sydney

The Australian government has opened a competition among groups of researchers for A$155 million (US$76 million) to build major scientific facilities.

Several telescope projects and a synchrotron are already in the frame for the funding, which was announced this month by science minister Nick Minchin. But with statements of intent needed within a week of the announcement, and applications due by 11 May, the money is expected to go to projects that are already well planned.

Such proposals include the scheme from a consortium of nine universities for a synchrotron called Boomerang. Physicist John Boldeman, facility director of the Australian Synchrotron Research Program, says that Boomerang would be a 3 giga-electron volt ring with nine beamlines.

Cold interest: Australian and French astronomers site-testing in Antarctica. Credit: PAOLO CALISSE, UNIV. NEW SOUTH WALES

The location for the synchrotron has yet to be decided, but three state governments, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, say that with the help of local industry they could raise the matching funds the government is demanding of successful project applicants.

Astronomers, meanwhile, are proposing several options for investment — although they may struggle to raise the matching funds. Rachel Webster, a physicist at the University of Melbourne and chair of the National Committee for Astronomy, says that the top priority is to double Australian time on 8-metre telescopes, either by greater participation in the Gemini project or by joining the European Southern Observatory.

But astronomers at the University of New South Wales want to build a 2-metre, wide-field infrared telescope in Australian Antarctic Territory. A fourth telescope plan would build a 6.5-metre, wide-field optical telescope in Chile.