The UK Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope project announced that it hopes to install a wide-angle telescope for the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory in Chile. The 4-m survey telescope will be sensitive in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum to offer general scans of large, deep-sky areas.

Construction of the telescope is planned to begin this spring and to be completed in 2004. A consortium of 18 universities in the UK will participate in the project.