32m Dish – Call for proposals

• This is the largest antenna in the country and would cost in excess of €10m to built today.
• It was originally constructed in 1984 to take transatlantic telephone traffic from Europe to the US.
• The big dish was retired from use in the mid 1990’s when the underground transatlantic cables were laid.
• While no longer of mainstream commercial interest, these dishes are extremely powerful research tools.
• Globally several have been repurposed and now serve as radio telescopes in either a standalone capacity or as part of large telescope arrays and are put to uses such as exploring celestial objects e.g. galaxies and interstellar clouds; tracking of space debris; extra terrestrial intelligence searching; outreach and education.

• Proposals from all potential partners will be considered, whether commercial, research or outreach.
• All partnership structures will be given consideration.
• Local, national and international participants are welcome.

• Interested participants are invited to submit a very short project outline online below.
• We will provide further technical details as required.
• The call will remain open for just over 3 months, closing 30 November 2016.
• When the call closes, full discussion with feasible projects will commence.

This call is now closed.