His Royal Highness the Prince of Asturias, Felipe of Bourbon and Greece, accompanied by the Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, José Manuel Soria, and the Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation, Carmen Vela, praised the role played by RedIRIS on the 25th anniversary of this Spanish advanced communication network. The anniversary celebrations were held today at the ministerial offices at 162 Paseo de La Castellana in Madrid.
The Prince of Asturias highlighted Spain's desire to consolidate its Exceptional Scientific and Technical facilities, including those of RedIRIS. The Minister of Industry announced the expected culmination in this term of government of the full connection of Spain to the RedIRIS-NOVA project following its extension to the island of La Palma. The head of R&D&i in the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness explained that the RedIRIS infraestructure is very important to improve the competitiveness and productivity of the science and the technology in Spain.
RedIRIS was founded in 1988 and currently provides communications, digital identity, security, mobility, email quality, collaboration and other computer services to the Spanish academic and scientific community. The entity has more than 450 affiliated institutions, encompassing more than 150,000 researchers and about 2 million potential users. It is financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and managed by the Public Corporate Entity "Red.es" of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism.
Today's act was the highlight of a week during which Working Groups met and Technical Conference were held at the Higher Technical College of Industrial Engineers at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). More than 400 experts and heads of information and communication technology (ICT) from Spanish universities, regional networks and research centres gathered for the events.
During the technical seminars, plenary sessions were held to address many technical subjects such as intelligence/efficiency in our institutions, science with more ICT, new teaching and learning trends and university network architectures.
The purpose of the working groups, which were aimed at technical personnel from institutions affiliated to RedIRIS, was to share user experiences. The aforementioned meetings coincided with the RedIRIS 25th anniversary technological exhibition in the National Museum of Natural Sciences, where the technological developments of the last twenty or thirty years and the IT equipment that made the Internet revolution possible were on display.
More information: http://www.red.es/redes/sala-de-prensa/