Funding:
Project co-funded by the European Commission through the @LIS2 Programme.
EC funding: €12,000,000
Latin American contribution: €6,000,000

Objective: To encourage and support collaborative research within Latin America and between the region and Europe, through the strengthening of CLARA (Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks) and its network infrastructure, RedCLARA, and the promotion of the creation and maintenance of research communities working on development-related themes (UN – Millennium Development Goals – MDG) as well as those themes put forward by the FP7 (7th Framework Programme – European Commission).

Work plan: Through the development of an optical network infrastructure, a network with services equivalent to those of GÉANT2 will be implemented in the region; under the name of RedCLARA2, this will sustain the research communities’ actions which will be generated as part of the project in order to work for the creation of solutions for the problems identified in the millennium development goals (MDG) and by the 7th Framework Programme. The emphasis will be placed on the inclusion of all the countries in the region, the network’s permanent sustainability and the development of highly qualified human resources.

Expected results of the ALICE2 Project:

1. A high-end upgradeable infrastructure with low maintenance costs, RedCLARA2, which will become the infrastructure of choice for collaboration in research and education within LA and with Europe.
2. A set of user communities (researchers, educators, students) working together in solving MDG related issues and participating in ALFA & FP7 calls.
3. A strong, well managed, participative, sustainable organisation with a clear funding model.
4. A network with wide coverage in the Latin American Region with strong ties to the Caribbean.
5. A large group of technicians, managers and community leaders empowered to collaborate with their  European counterparts and take advantage of funding opportunities.
   
   

@LIS2 will support the regional political dialogue process - eLAC, strengthen collaborative research intra-LA and with the EU, increasing access to the RedCLARA network and promote on-going regulatory integration efforts. Particular attention will be given to the social impact of information and communication technologies. @LIS2 activities cover the period 2009-2013.

@LIS2 was officialy launched in Santiago (Chile) in March 17th, the three projects that are co-funded by the Programme -led by REGULATEL, ECLAC and CLARA- were also presented during the event. For more information about this respect, please click here.

Within the @LIS Programme (European Commission – EuropAid Cooperation Office), in  June 3rd 2003 the officers from the European Commission and the representatives from DANTE signed the contract that gave the starting point to ALICE. The contract signed by €12.5 million (€10 million – 80% funded by the European Commission, and €2,5 million – 20%, contributed by the Latin American partners) served for the creation of an infrastructure that connected the Latin American research networks at an intra-regional level, and interconnected them with the pan-European network GÉANT.

In order to achieve the ALICE Project objective, DANTE –institution in charge of GÉANT’s management- as part of its role as ALICE Project coordinator, associated in Europe with NREN from Spain (RedIRIS), France (RENATER), Italy (GARR) and Portugal (FCCN), and in Latin America ALICE associated with CLARA and with the NREN from the 18 countries whose participation was admitted by the regulations of the @LIS programme: RETINA (Argentina), ADSIB (Bolivia), RNP (Brazil), REUNA (Chile), University of the Cauca (Colombia), CRnet (Costa Rica), RedUniv (Cuba), CEDIA (Ecuador), RAICES (El Salvador), RAGIE (Guatemala), UNITEC (Honduras), CUDI (Mexico), CNU on behalf of RENIA (Nicaragua), RedCyT (Panama), ARANDU (Paraguay), RAP (Peru), RAU (Uruguay) and REACCIUN (Venezuela).

Initially ALICE was supposed to end in April of 2006, but the Project received two temporary extension authorizations (with the exact the budget of the contract signed in June 3rd, 2003) from the European Commission, hence its finalization was marked in March of 2008.

Evaluation:

The success and benefits brought about by the ALICE project were reflected in the @LIS Final Evaluation which assessed the project very highly with a score of 4.3 out of a possible 5. Indeed, this was the highest of the scores awarded to the five Horizontal Actions included in the @LIS Programme. Furthermore, when compared with the @LIS programme’s 19 demonstration projects, ALICE came second only to ATLAS (which achieved a score of 4.38), whilst equalling the score of IALE. ALICE’s average score breaks down into the following parameters:

• Relevance: 5
• Design: 3.5
• Efficiency: 5
• Effectiveness: 5
• Impact: 4
• Sustainability: 3
• Coordination: 4
• Web: 4.8
• Average: 4.3  

The success of the ALICE project is further echoed in the following comments made in the @LIS Final Evaluation.

“ALICE was the most tangible action of @lis and operated at an “intermediate” level. Its specific objective was the creation of an infrastructure (although of a virtual nature) on which the "brains" of Europe and Latin America could interconnect. The objective was achieved to a greater degree than expected, despite the continuity of this connection being subject to the European subsidy.”

“With regard to the research network, the final evaluation has noted the impressive success and promising progress of the Latin American academic network. This was a desired reality for many but considered an almost unattainable objective before @lis (through its ALICE action) decided to support the establishment of the CLARA Network. It is an achievement essential to finally constructing a Latin American capacity for scientific and technological collaboration, a basic element for the development of an Information Society which really meets the needs of the region and is not simply set up as a framework for the application of technologies developed elsewhere. The CLARA Network has also allowed the worldwide research and education network system to be completed with Eumedconnect in the Mediterranean and TEIN2 in Eurasia, constituting a counterweight to the North American equivalent Internet2 in LA, and providing the essential support for EU–LA collaboration in development programmes (FP6, FP7).”

You can download the @LIS Final Evaluation here.

Additional Information:

• ALICE Project Web site
• In order to get far... you must be near
  Book: Histoy of the RedCLARA network and the ALICE project (2004 - March 2008)
  PDF Format:
  Introduction & Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3
  
  

ALICE2 Logo (colour)
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1. Maintaining and further developing the network infrastructure of RedCLARA with the provision of a continuous, inclusive and persistent environment for electronic collaboration for research and education within Latin America, with the emphasis on supporting a higher education and research collaboration space between Latin America and Europe. This upgraded version of RedCLARA will be based on IRU (Irrevocable Right of Use) contracts for dark fibre and wavelengths, to ensure low ongoing costs.
   
2. Creating user communities to ensure the utilization of RedCLARA in applications related to the MDG, as well as fostering the collaboration within Latin America and with European Researchers in FP7 priorities and strengthen the collaboration with European facilities such as: ESO, Pierre Auger and TIGO Observatories among others.
   
3. Developing a funding model that provides long term stability and sustainability for Latin American regional research and education networking. This model will be based on a stronger CLARA organisation, a widely embraced cost distribution model and a solid financial management.
   
4. Consolidating the long term existing geographical coverage of RedCLARA, and seek to expand it to include the developing research and education communities of additional Latin American countries and to further contribute to the region’s digital inclusion via its research and education communities. To do this, the project will seek to involve all Latin-American countries in the Project and generate synergies with the NRENs by creating a terrestrial communications infrastructure that can also be locally used to build or extend the NRENs.
   
5. Empowering the NRENs and their user communities to become active players in the research and education networking community by providing training and tools for their technical, management and academic communities.

Work Packages:

• WP1 - Project Management (responsible – CLARA)
• WP2 - Procurement (responsible – CLARA)
• WP3 - Dissemination (responsible – CLARA)
• WP4 - Networking Technologies (responsible –RNP)
• WP5 - Marketing and Services (responsible – CLARA)
• WP6 - Application Promotion (responsible – RAGIE)
• WP7 - Sustainability (responsible – CUDI)
• WP8 - Inclusion (responsible – RAICES)
• WP9 - Human Capacity Building (responsible –RNP)