CONICET signed an agreement to expand InnovaRed throughout the country

Roberto Salvarezza, the president of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Dr. Alejandro Ceccatto, secretary of Scientific and Technology Articulation of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, and Eng. Matías Bianchi, ARSAT president, signed an agreement to expand InnovaRed network within the framework of the E-ciencia national programme presentation.

During the meeting, Dr. Ceccatto highlighted that “Latin America produces 4% of the world scientific knowledge with only 0,4% of computer facilities; so we must invest in infrastructure of this type to integrate ourselves into the current way of doing science”.

For his part, Dr. Salvarezza remarked the federal objective of this project and said, “InnovaRed, a core network, has been operating since 2013; and today we are talking about expanding it and connecting all the country”. Besides, he stressed that “we already have 200 CONICET institutes in all the country and 13 Scientific and Technological Centres that will benefit from this agreement”.

Currently, InnovaRed unites Buenos Aires, Rosario, Córdoba, San Luis, Villa Mercedes, Mendoza, Malargüe, La Plata, Bahía Blanca, Choele Choel, Neuquén and Bariloche. Furthermore, it enables the implementation of research and development projects for 13 national science and technology organizations, 42 national public universities, 4 private universities; and two international facilites: the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Deep Space 3 station.

The Ministry of Science and the Ministry of Education countersigned an agreement with the aim of making InnovaRed services free for the scientific and university community of the country. Besides, this agreement is going to have an annual investment from both portfolios exceeding AR$ 8,000,000.

InnovaRed is the outcome of an agreement between CONICET, the Argentina’s Communication Secretariat (SECOM) and the Secretariat of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation of Argentina (SECYT). It allows scientists and technologists to exchange information and communicate in an effective and nimble way. The importance of this service is based on the absence of excessive congestion and communication faults.

Thanks to this research network, it is possible to attend congresses and scientific meetings through videoconferencing enabling distance interaction between participants and exhibitors, access to international data base in the area of genomics, meteorology and climate, satellite data and other subjects.

The event was attended by Dr. Norberto Berner, secretary of Communications of the Ministry of Federal Planning, Dr. Sergio Matheos, the undersecretary of Institutional Coordination of the Science Portfolio, and Mrs. Mariana Fernández, coordinator of the Programa de Calidad Universitaria of the Ministry of Education. Furthermore, board members and CONICET managers were present.