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 addresses the infrastructure objectives of the European Commission’s @LIS programme, which aims to promote the Information Society and fight the digital divide throughout Latin America.
Owing to its success, the ALICE project has been extended until March 2007 from its original end date of May 2006.
Background
The ALICE project implements 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 is actively supporting ALICE and provides co-funding to the project of EUR10 million. This constitutes 80% of the project’s funding, with the remainder being provided by the project partners.
The EC has asked DANTE to coordinate this project and transfer the knowledge that DANTE has gained over the last decade in Europe to Latin America. The project is managed by DANTE, and has 4 European and 19 Latin American partners. In Europe these are 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 is being carried out by CLARA (Cooperación Latino Americana de Redes Avanzadas).
Benefits
Previously, research collaboration between Latin America and Europe was hindered by the lack of a dedicated connection between the two regions. The ALICE project has directly addressed this issue, with more countries joining the network all the time. ALICE has 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 is also significantly improving the regional communications infrastructure in Latin America. While the initial impact will be on research and education institutions, the provision of improved communications infrastructure has additional social development and healthcare benefits for the general population.
The project has 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.
