Celebrations were in order today at the South African Astronomical Observatory for the launch of the newly-established NWU/UCT/UWC Inter-University Centre for Data-Intensive Astronomy (IDIA).

The Institute aims to kickstart Big Data research and teaching initiatives across (South) Africa in collaboration with academic and industrial partners as well as (South) African and International government and funding agencies.

The Institute’s founding director, UCT/UWC’s Prof Russ Taylor, was joined at the agreement-signing and cake-cutting ceremony by the three founding partners’ Vice-Chancellors, South Africa’s Minister of Science & Technology Naledi Pandor and SKA South Africa Project Director Dr Bernie Fanaroff.