The ALICE Project

The ALICE (America Latina Interconectada Con Europa) project was set up in 2003 to develop an IP research network infrastructure within the Latin American region and towards Europe. It addressed the infrastructure objectives of the European Commission’s @LIS programme, which aimed to promote the Information Society and fight the digital divide throughout Latin America.

Owing to its success, the ALICE project was extended until March 2008 from its original end date of May 2006. Since then the countries participating in CLARA have been responsible for the sustainability of the organisation and the regional Latin American infrastructure. Connectivity to Europe and to other world regions has been sustained in 2008 through cost-sharing between the respective partners.

Background

The ALICE project implemented the recommendations of the CAESAR study, which was carried out between March and October 2002. This investigated the feasibility of connecting the Latin American national research and education networks to GÉANT via a Latin American regional research network. It concluded that there was a real demand for this, and that developing such a network was technically feasible.

Funding and Organisation

The European Commission actively supported ALICE and provided co-funding to the project of EUR10 million. This constituted 80% of the project’s funding, with the remainder being provided by the project partners.

The EC asked DANTE to coordinate this project and transfer the knowledge that DANTE had gained over the previous decade in Europe to Latin America. The project was managed by DANTE, and had 4 European and 19 Latin American partners. In Europe these were the NRENs of France, Italy, Portugal and Spain (RENATER, INFN/GARR, FCCN and RedIRIS respectively), who have close historical and social ties with Latin America.

Within Latin America, the technical management of the RedCLARA network, which provides IP research network infrastructure within the Latin American region and towards Europe, was carried out by CLARA (Cooperación Latino Americana de Redes Avanzadas).

Benefits

Previously, research collaboration between Latin America and Europe had been hindered by the lack of a dedicated connection between the two regions. The ALICE project directly addressed this issue, with more countries joining the network all the time. ALICE made a fundamental contribution to the ability of researchers in Latin America to collaborate in research projects around the world.

The network built by ALICE also significantly improved the regional communications infrastructure in Latin America. While the initial impact was on research and education institutions, the provision of improved communications infrastructure had additional social development and healthcare benefits for the general population.

The project stimulated the local development of some of the Latin American partners. Many are now focusing their efforts in developing their own national networks, giving them the ability to access the global research and education community.

Promotion

Following the creation of the ALICE logo, brochure and website, DANTE and CLARA signed an agreement in March 2005 giving CLARA the responsibility and budget for the execution of CLARA and ALICE-related PR in Latin America. In this activity CLARA was supported by the Chilean NREN, REUNA, and the Brazilian NREN, RNP. As a result, CLARA relaunched its website and regularly publishes the “DeCLARA” Newsletters and the “DeCLARA” Express.  The Newsletters are distributed via mailing lists in Latin America and in Europe and have been positively accepted by the audience for their fresh and informative style of reporting.

In order to provide information and dissemination of the ALICE project a total of 159 meetings were organised or attended in 32 countries around the world including 121 meetings in 16 Latin American countries. In addition, a staggering 309 presentations were given in connection with the project in a total of 41 countries, including 248 presentations in 17 Latin American countries.

This process of promotion, information provision and dissemination was recognised in the @ALIS Final Evaluation in the following terms:

“The scientific, academic and political authorities have been sensitised through different forms of communication: events, conferences, specific meetings and documentation.”

Evaluation

The success and benefits brought about by the ALICE project were reflected in the @LIS Final Evaluation which assessed the project very highly with a score of 4.3 out of a possible 5. Indeed, this was the highest of the scores awarded to the five Horizontal Actions included in the @LIS Programme. Furthermore, when compared with the @LIS programme’s 19 demonstration projects, ALICE came second only to ATLAS (which achieved a score of 4.38), whilst equalling the score of IALE. ALICE’s average score breaks down into the following parameters:

The success of the ALICE project is further echoed in the following comments made in the @LIS Final Evaluation.

“ALICE was the most tangible action of @lis and operated at an “intermediate” level. Its specific objective was the creation of an infrastructure (although of a virtual nature) on which the "brains" of Europe and Latin America could interconnect. The objective was achieved to a greater degree than expected, despite the continuity of this connection being subject to the European subsidy.”

“With regard to the research network, the final evaluation has noted the impressive success and promising progress of the Latin American academic network. This was a desired reality for many but considered an almost unattainable objective before @lis (through its ALICE action) decided to support the establishment of the CLARA Network. It is an achievement essential to finally constructing a Latin American capacity for scientific and technological collaboration, a basic element for the development of an Information Society which really meets the needs of the region and is not simply set up as a framework for the application of technologies developed elsewhere. The CLARA Network has also allowed the worldwide research and education network system to be completed with Eumedconnect in the Mediterranean and TEIN2 in Eurasia, constituting a counterweight to the North American equivalent Internet2 in LA, and providing the essential support for EU–LA collaboration in development programmes (FP6, FP7).”

The Future

Following the creation of a successful research and education network infrastructure under the ALICE project, the ALICE2 project, due to start in the first quarter of 2009, will aim to consolidate and expand the geographical reach of the network to countries not yet connected to RedCLARA. Based on an upgraded 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.

The creation of user communities will be another focus of ALICE2, ensuring the proper utilisation of RedCLARA in applications related to the Millennium Development Goals as well as fostering collaboration with European Researchers in FP7 priorities. It will also empower the NRENs and their user communities to become active players in the research and education networking community by providing training and tools for their technical, management and academic community.

In a ground-breaking move not yet repeated in any other world region, CLARA will take over the coordinating role of ALICE2, a position held throughout the ALICE project by DANTE who will now provide management and technical support in the overall management of the project and more specifically in the area of connectivity procurement.