EU approves funding to extend Latin American research networking
CLARA and DANTE launch ALICE2 network
Monday 6 April 2009, Cambridge, UK: Researchers and students across Latin America will benefit from a €12 million EU investment in networking infrastructure. This funding will underpin the ALICE2 project, which will provide a high speed network that links Latin American researchers to their peers within the region and in Europe.
The new network is based on the successful ALICE project, which ran from June 2003 to March 2008 and built the first research and education network infrastructure in Latin America. This first phase of ALICE was managed by DANTE, the operator of research and education networks. The new ALICE2 project will be co-ordinated and co-financed by CLARA, the Latin American research networking organisation, with support from partners that include DANTE and National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) from across the region and Europe.
This existing network already interconnects 12 countries in the region and provides them with connectivity to GÉANT2, the high-bandwidth, pan-European research network. ALICE2 will run until August 2012 with the goal of reaching and connecting more Latin American countries and broadening the possibilities for collaborative research and regional development. The first new country to join ALICE2 will be Costa Rica, which will join Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela in the network.
“The announcement of ALICE2 is a major step forward for research in Latin America and will deliver benefits to the whole continent,” said Dai Davies, General Manager of DANTE. “We are very pleased that the impetus gained during the ALICE project has enabled CLARA to take full responsibility for Latin American research and education networking. Whilst we will continue to be a partner in the ALICE2 project and will provide management and technical support, CLARA will drive the future development, expansion and sustainability of the RedCLARA network and the growth of the user community in Latin America.”
Many examples of successful on-going projects in the fields of health, physics, astronomy, climate change and environment, information and communication technologies, and education are proving that the connection to the regional research and education network infrastructure, and to the rest of the research world via other networks, is a key factor for the development of Latin American nations.
"ALICE2 will permit CLARA to create a state-of-the-art network by deploying an Optical Network Infrastructure that will provide first class support to networked research and education, thus facilitating the creation across Latin America of virtual research laboratories and educational facilities. The project will also target researchers, educators, and technicians, by empowering them through training and community-building so that they can jointly create solutions to some of the more pressing regional problems while improving collaboration with Europe and the rest of the world”, explains Florencio Utreras, Executive Director of CLARA.
Based on an up-graded hybrid network of IP, dark fibre and wavelengths, an important aim of the project will be to establish long-term stability and sustainability for Latin American regional research and education networking through a high capacity network, services, training and tools delivered across the region.
About DANTE
DANTE is a non-profit organisation, coordinator of large-scale projects co-funded by the European Commission, and works in partnership with European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) to plan, build and operate advanced networks for research and education. Established in 1993, DANTE has been fundamental to the success of pan-European research and education networking. DANTE has built and operates GÉANT2, which provides the data communications infrastructure essential to the success of many research projects in Europe. DANTE is involved in worldwide initiatives to interconnect countries in the other regions to one another and to GÉANT2. DANTE currently manages projects focussed on the Mediterranean and Asia-Pacific regions through the EUMEDCONNECT2 and TEIN3 projects respectively, and is a partner of the ALICE2 project for Latin America. For more information, visit www.dante.net
About CLARA:
CLARA -Cooperación Latino Americana de Redes Avanzadas- is a not-for-profit international organisation which came into legal existence under Uruguayan law on 23 December 2004. The CLARA vision is to serve as a Latin American collaboration system by means of advanced telecommunications networks for research, innovation and education. CLARA develops and operates RedCLARA, the advanced network that was established in Latin America –for regional interconnection– and linked to GÉANT2 (the high-speed pan-European research and education network) via the ALICE Project, which –until March 2008– was co-funded by the European Commission through the @LIS Programme. CLARA is constituted by 17 Latin American countries and its Assembly, on which each country is represented, meets every six months to define courses of action and policies to be implemented. For more information, visit www.redclara.net.
For further information please contact:
Helen Martindale
DANTE
Direct: +44 (0)1223 371 328
Mobile: +44 (0)7823 538090
helen.martindale@dante.org.uk
Chris Measures/Clodagh Boyle/Matthew Watson
Speed Communications (on behalf of DANTE)
+44(0)20 7842 3200
dante@speedcommunications.com
