About CLARA

Cooperación Latino Americana de Redes Avanzadas (CLARA) has two main objectives:

• To build a network that interconnects with the advanced networks in Latin America
• To create a non-governmental organisation that represents the interests of the organisations connected by this network.

The initial idea for the formation of CLARA was floated in June 2002 at a workshop in Toledo organised by CAESAR, a study funded by DG Information Society that led to the current ALICE project.

Since that meeting, the idea of the Latin American network has taken shape, and been transformed into the organisation that CLARA is today. CLARA's formal constitution was agreed on 9 June 2003 at a meeting in Mexico. CLARA was registered as an international not-for profit organisation in Uruguay on 23 December 2003.

Today, CLARA has 18 partner NRENs across Latin America. Since 1 January 2005, CLARA's headquarters have been based in Santiago de Chile, where the CLARA Executive Director has his offices. Over time, CLARA is expected to develop into an organisation whose role in Latin American research networking is similar to that of DANTE in European research networking.

At present, CLARA receives its funding from the European Commission through the ALICE project. After the end of the project in March 2007, the countries participating in CLARA will be responsible for the sustainability of the organisation, and for its connections to Europe and other world regions.