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Latin American countries sign Clara statute

Last Monday, June 9th, representatives of the academic networks of 16 Latin American countries got together in Mexico to sign the minutes constituting the Clara organization - Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks. This organization will be responsible for the implementation and management of a network infrastructure that will interconnect the national academic networks of several Latin American countries.

Through this network, the initiative intends to connect over 700 universities and research centers as well as foster regional cooperation in educational, scientific and cultural activities. Having its headquarters in Uruguay, the Clara, a non-profit civil association, will also represent the interests of Latin America in its relationships with other networks in the world.

The Brazilian Nelson Simões, CEO of the National Education and Research Network (RNP), is in charge of presiding the Clara. RNP keeps the Brazilian academic network which interconnects the federal institutions of higher education and research. For Simões, the fact that the formal constitution of the initiative happened one year after the beginning of the work to create the new network is already a victory to the organization.

The C.E.O. of the University Corporation for Internet Development in Mexico, Carlos Casasús, mentioned that the new infrastructure will favor higher education and research all over Latin America. According to Casasús, the regional network is a powerful tool to spread knowledge and develop projects and advanced network applications.

The following countries signed the Clara statute: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The Clara initiative is associated with the European Alice project (Latin America Connected to Europe) for the creation of a Latin American research network and its connection to the Pan European Géant network, managed by Dante organization. On June 3rd, the European Commission signed the € 12.5 million contract with Dante, ensuring that the project will be carried out. The rest of the money necessary for this initiative (20%) will come from the Latin American partners. The Alice project will last until April 2006. After this period, the countries participating in the Clara, which is supposed to start functioning in 2004, will be responsible for maintaining the initiative and its connection to Europe.

[RNP, 06.11.2003]