Latin America’s First Research & Education Network Causes a Stir Enabling Advanced Applications!
Press Release
RedCLARA Delivers Immediate Benefits:
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Increased collaboration between researchers
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Delivery of basic health and education services
Cambridge, UK, 17 November 2004 - Latin America has benefited from an important boost in the last few weeks. For the first time ever, researchers in the region can communicate directly with one another using the RedCLARA network, and to Europe’s GÉANT network using a dedicated high-speed link: 600 university research institutions in Latin America are now connected to more than 3,500 institutions in Europe, and many more around the world.
Since it began operating on 1 September 2004, the effects of the network have been felt far and wide, thanks to the geographical reach of the network and its direct economic and social impact. Delivered by the ALICE project, RedCLARA is transforming research work and delivering basic services such as health and education to the general population.
The new network means that for the first time, researchers in the region can work together on-line on joint initiatives, fostering a spirit of collaboration between different nationalities. The direct link to Europe adds a further dimension, opening the way to participation in European research projects, and stimulating the development of Latin American expertise in important areas of scientific research such as high energy physics, astronomy and biomedicine. Via RedCLARA and GÉANT, Latin Americans can take part in research projects worldwide, playing their full part in global research.
Nelson Simões, President of CLARA, which manages RedCLARA, explains: “Network applications have become essential to the way much modern research is performed. They have a profound effect on the opportunities available to scientists, bridging the ‘digital divide’ by providing access to essential but often remote facilities such as radio-telescopes or particle colliders for researchers throughout our region. Beyond that, such applications are key to help solve major social challenges in education and health.” The network’s wider potential is equally profound: the boost it gives to developing – and retaining - the pool of academic knowledge and expertise in Latin America will help attract new research facilities to the region and encourage spin-off activities such as commercial start-ups and knowledge transfer throughout society. All of this activity helps create jobs and wealth, but also builds the strong technological and scientific base needed for the region’s sustained development.
RedCLARA also opens the way for the use of modern technology to address basic requirements in the areas of health and education. One such application is exploited by the T@lemed project, whose innovative use of networks delivers specialist medical equipment and advice to native populations in remote places such as the Amazonian region in Brazil. Data from medical procedures such as scans used in gynaecology or oncology is sent from the remote clinics where they are performed, to hospitals in large cities for analysis by specialists. Where a second opinion is required, T@lemed again uses the network to send the data to expert medical consultants in Germany. The results are rapidly processed and sent back to the local clinic, and any necessary follow-up treatment can be arranged without further delay.
Network applications such as T@lemed directly contribute to countries’ socio-economic development by improving the quality of life and economic potential of their citizens. Dr Luiz Messina, Director of T@lemed, observes that “thanks to network technology, the ‘virtual’ availability of advanced medical equipment and medical knowledge in remote, inaccessible parts of Brazil is saving lives. It is startling to think just how far-reaching the consequences of a telecommunications network can be.”
In recognition of its importance for the region’s development, the network will be officially launched at the annual Forum on the Information Society between the European Union and the Latin American & Caribbean countries which will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 22 and 23 November 2004.
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About RedCLARA:
From 1 September 2004, RedCLARA has begun providing direct connectivity of 155 Mbps, in a “ring” topology, linking the NRENs of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Panama, and connecting them to GÉANT at 622 Mbps via a link between São Paulo, Brazil and Madrid, Spain. The circuits are being leased from Global Crossing, which provides support to the project. The Venezuelan NREN will be connected to the ring via a 45Mbps circuit between Caracas and Sao Paulo and further connections linking the NRENs of Uruguay, Peru, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Nicaragua to the ring will follow soon.
The RedCLARA points of presence are equipped with routers generously donated by Cisco.
About the EU-LAC Information Society Forum:
The EU-LAC Information Society Forum, “An Alliance for Social Cohesion Through Digital Inclusion”, will take place at the Hotel Othon Rio Palace in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 22 and 23 November 2004. For further information please visit http://www.ahciet.net/agenda/Evento.asp?idEvnt=103&a=2004
About ALICE:
The RedCLARA network and its connection to GÉANT are built by the ALICE project, “America Latina Interconectada Con Europa”. The aim of ALICE is to provide dedicated research Internet connections between the research and educational communities of the Latin American region, and towards Europe. The project is being funded until May 2006 with 10M Euros from the European Commission's @LIS cooperation programme, which aims to promote the Information Society in the region.
The ALICE project is co-ordinated by DANTE and partnered by the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) of the 18 Latin American @LIS beneficiary countries as well as FCCN, GARR, RedIris and RENATER, the NRENs of Portugal, Italy, Spain and France respectively. ALICE is also partnered by CLARA, the Latin American Co-operation of Advanced Networks, DANTE’s counterpart organisation in the region. 80% funding of the project comes from the European Commission’s EuropeAid Co-operation Office. The remaining 20% is contributed by the Latin American partners in ALICE.
The participating Latin American NREN organisations are:
Univ. de Cauca (Colombia)
RAP (Peru)
RNP (Brazil)
RAGIE (Guatemala)
RETINA (Argentina)
REACCIUN (Venezuela)
BolNet (Bolivia)
RedUniv (Cuba)
REUNA (Chile)
RedCyT (Panama)
Crnet (Costa Rica)
RAU (Uruguay)
RAICES (El Salvador)
UNITEC (Honduras)
Arandu (Paraguay)
CUDI (Mexico)
CEDIA (Ecuador)
RENIE (Nicaragua)
About DANTE:
DANTE is a non-profit organisation whose primary mission is to plan, build and manage pan-European research and education networks on behalf of Europe’s NRENs. Established in 1993, DANTE has been fundamental to the success of pan-European research and education networking. DANTE delivered and operated previous research networks for Europe, including EuropaNET, TEN-34 and TEN-155, and is currently building the GÉANT2 network which will upgrade GÉANT and continue to provide the data communications infrastructure essential to the success of many research projects in Europe.
As research networking becomes an increasingly global activity, so DANTE becomes increasingly involved in initiatives worldwide to interconnect countries in other regions to one another and to GÉANT. DANTE is currently managing initiatives focussed on the Mediterranean, Latin American and Asia-Pacific regions through the EUMEDCONNECT, ALICE and TEIN2 projects respectively.
About CLARA:
CLARA, the Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks, is a not-for-profit association registered in Montevideo, Uruguay. It was created by 14 of Latin America´s NRENs. Its aims are to develop and operate the RedCLARA Latin American research and education network interconnecting the region's national research and education networks, and to promote cooperation in research and education at the regional and global levels via the use of advanced data communications networks.
About GÉANT:
Reaching over 3,500 research and education institutions in 32 European countries through its direct connection to 28 National and Regional Research and Education Networks (NRENs), and also offering high-speed international connectivity to other world regions, GÉANT provides the highest capacity and offers the greatest geographic coverage of any network of its kind in the world. Enabling researchers to compete on an international stage by providing them with a world-class backbone that offers the bandwidth and services required for research activities at this level, GÉANT has dual roles of providing an infrastructure to support research and education, as well as providing an infrastructure for research itself.
GÉANT is a project co-funded by the European Commission under the Fifth Research & Development Framework Programme. The project partners are 26 European NRENs, together with DANTE as the co-ordinating partner.
About T@lemed:
The T@lemed project is funded within the European Commission’s @LIS co-operation programme. T@lemed delivers the benefits of information technologies for health provision and social development by introducing an e-health model in strongly underserved regions in Colombia and Brazil. The implementation of the model is supported by current telehealth technologies as well as by evidence-based medicine. Target clinical applications include typical infectious diseases for the region such as malaria and tuberculosis, and general ultrasound applications such as pregnancy control, urology and cardiovascular diagnosis. It is expected that the T@lemed model will be adopted by both government health authorities and private health providers.
T@lemed is co-ordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute (Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Forderung der Angewandten Forschung) in Germany, in co-operation with Greek, Spanish and German technical and medical partners, together with a number of technical and medical institutes in Colombia and Brazil.
More information from:
http://alice.dante.net
http://www.redclara.net
http://europa.eu.int/alis
http://www.alis-online.org/
http://www.alis-telemed.net/
For further information, please contact:
Dale Robertson
press@dante.org.uk
Tel: +44 1223 371 310
Fax: +44 1223 303 005
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