Five years before South Africa's MeerKAT telescope becomes operational, more than 43,000 hours of observing time (adding up to about five years) have already been allocated to radio astronomers from Africa and around the world, who have applied for time to do research with this unique and world-leading instrument.

Surveys of radio pulsars and hydrogen gas in the deep universe came out on top in the first round of allocating MeerKAT's observing time.

MeerKAT is South Africa's precursor telescope to the SKA (Square Kilometre Array) and will consist of 64 dishes, each 13.5 m (44.3 ft) in diameter. It will be built in the radio astronomy reserve near Carnarvon in the Northern Cape over the next five years. An engineering test bed of seven dishes (KAT-7) is already complete.

Following an October 2009 invitation to the world's radio astronomers to apply for telescope time to perform large survey projects, 21 proposals, involving more than 500 astronomers from around the world (59 from Africa), were received.

A Time Allocation Committee made up of local and international experts rated the proposals on the basis of scientific merit, technical and operational feasibility, the extent to which MeerKAT has a unique role for the proposed observations or is an essential component in a larger campaign, and the resources each group was prepared to bring to the project.

Nearly 8,000 hours of observing time were allocated to a proposal to test Einstein's theory of gravity and investigate the physics of enigmatic neutron stars (radio pulsar timing survey), while 5,000 hours were dedicated jointly to two proposals to survey the distant universe with the MeerKAT (the ultra-deep survey of neutral hydrogen gas in the early universe).

These science objectives also happen to be the prime science drivers for the first phase of the SKA telescope itself, confirming MeerKAT's designation as an SKA precursor instrument.

Eight other proposals were rated highly and have also been allocated time on the MeerKAT.

They are: - MeerKAT Search for Molecules in the Epoch of Re-ionisation (6,500 hours); - MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (4,000 hours); - MeerKAT HI Observations of Nearby Galactic Objects: Observing Southern Emitters (6,000 hours); - Detection of Transients and Pulsars with MeerKAT (3,080 hours); - A MeerKAT HI Survey of the Fornax Cluster (2,450 hours); - MeerGAL: A MeerKAT High Frequency Galactic Plane Survey (3,300 hours); - MeerKAT International GigaHertz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration Survey (1,950 hours, subject to modification); - ThunderKAT: The Hunt for Dynamic and Explosive Radio Transients with MeerKAT (3,000 hours).

"In addition to these ten high priority surveys, there is a strong case for MeerKAT to participate in the world-wide VLBI (very long baseline interferometry) observations, which use telescopes all around the world, working together, and we will ensure that MeerKAT becomes affiliated to international VLBI networks and will commit time to these observations," explains Dr Bernie Fanaroff, Director of the SKA South Africa Project.

"We would also like to explore the potential for SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) and for collaboration with NASA on downloading information from their space probes sent to other planets".

The teams who have submitted the successful proposals will be invited to work with the MeerKAT team throughout the design phase of the telescope, and to become involved in the project's human capacity building program.