Knowledge News News
- 4th IBERGRID Conference
The 4th IBERGIRD Conference – Iberian Computation Grid Network took place from 24 to 28 May 2010 in Braga, Portugal. IBERGRID was set up by a joint decision of the Spanish and Portuguese governments at the 23rd Luso-Spanish Summit in November 2006, with the objective of integrating the two countries’ Computation Grid infrastructures in a coherent network, thus increasing their computational capacity and stepping up cooperation between the two countries’ institutions and researchers working in this field. - Promoting the Initiative IBERCIVIS – Your Computer Doing Science
In the 23rd February 2010, at the auditorium of the High School D. Dinis in Lisbon, there will be a meeting to promote the initiative IBERCIVIS – Your Computer Doing Science which was launched in Portugal on the 30th July 2009 (see Initiative IBERCIVIS: Citizens can donate their computer time to science). This Volunteer Computing initiative for scientific purposes conducted in cooperation with Spain welcomes the participation of citizens in a scientific research directly and in real time, offereing the processing time of their computers, in particular when they are not being used, to perform scientific computing. - 4th Conference on Free Access to Knowledge
The 4th Conference on Free Access to Knowledge takes place on 26-27 November 2009 from 14:30 on 26th, at the University of Minho-Braga (Amphitheatre B1, Pedagogic Complex II - Gualtar Campus), organised by the Documentation Services of the University of Minho with the support of FCCN – the Foundation for National Scientific Computation, under the scope of the project to set up the Open Access Scientific Repository of Portugal (RCAAP – Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal) with financing by The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and co-financing from community funds, The Knowledge Society Operational Programme, POSC. - FCCN Presents Recent Developments of the RCTS
The Foundation for National Scientific Computing (FCCN) presents July 28, 2009 the latest developments of the National Research and Education Network, the Science Technology and Society Network (RCTS), which were developed with funding and guidance of the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and also supported by funds from the Knowledge Society Operational Program (POSC). The presentation, in the facilities of FCCN located at the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC), Avenida do Brasil, Lisbon, is attended by the Minister of Science Technology and Higher Education, José Mariano Gago. - IBERCIVIS Initiative: Citizens Can Offer Their Computer Time to Science
At the end of the e-Science session today at the 2nd Meeting with Science in Portugal – Science 2009, in Room 1 of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation from 11.30 to 13.30, IBERCIVIS, the Voluntary Computing for Scientific Purposes initiative will be presented for the first time in Portugal. The project is being carried out in cooperation with Spain and enables citizens to participate in scientific research in a direct and real time manner, by giving up part of their computers' processing time to carrying out computational calculations of scientific interest through computational procedures distributed in a manner similar to those of Grid Computing.
- New b-on Portal: 100% Compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
A new portal for the b-on: (Biblioteca do Conhecimento Online) has been launched with better usability and for the first time, it completely complies with the accessibility guidelines for citizens with special needs, from W3C - World Wide Web Consortium (level AAA for the WCAG – Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 for WAI – Web Accessibility Initiative of the W3C).The b-on portal thus joins the limited number of medium or large-sized Internet Websites which completely comply with the accessibility guidelines of the W3C, as has been the case with The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) website for about a year and a half.
- Videoconference to Prepare for the IBERCIVIS Initiative for Voluntary Computation
On 21 July 2009, in The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) a videoconference took place with BIFI – the Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems of the University of Zaragoza, to coordinate the inclusion of a voluntary computation project for scientific purposes developed by CNC – the Centre for Neurosciences and Cellular Biology within the IBERCIVIS initiative, which will shortly be launched in Portugal.
The Portugal-Spain cooperation agreements in the area of e-Science, which were signed at the 24th Luso-Spanish Summit, on 22 January 2009, in Zamora, Spain, envisaged joint work between Portuguese and Spanish teams to include Portugal within IBERCIVIS, which was started in Spain in 2008, as one more example of Portuguese-Spanish cooperation; this action has the support of The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and FCCN – The Foundation for National Scientific Computation in Portugal.
- One of the first Next Generation Networks in the Country Presented in Évora
The Association of Municipalities of the District of Évora and the partnership set up to develop the “Broadband Community Network for the Évora District” officially presented this Next Generation Network on 15 July 2009 in a session which took place at the new premises of the University of Évora. Present at the session was the Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, José Mariano Gago. The same session was combined with a ceremony to inaugurate the Colégio dos Leões (Antiga Fábrica dos Leões), and included a presentation on the new University site which will house teaching and research work in the Visual Arts, Multimedia, Design and Architecture.
- 8th Policy Board Meeting of the European Grid Initiative
On 9 July 2009, the 8th Meeting of the European Grid Initiative (EGI) Policy Board took place in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.This meeting analysed the results of the 1st meeting of the EGI Board based on the signed MoUs.
- 7th Policy Board Meeting of the European Grid Initiative
On the 29 May 2009, the 7th Meeting of the European Grid Initiative (EGI) Policy Board took place in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
This meeting considered several reports: the report from the Director of the EGI Design Study Project, the Transition Report from the Technical Director, updated information on middleware, the task force report on the organization of EGI, the transition process towards the EGI Council, plans to present proposals regarding EGI, the process of searching for the Director of EGI.eu.
- 3rd IBERGRID Conference
On 20 - 22 May 2009 the 3rd IBERGRID Conference – Iberian Computation Grid Network took place in Valencia, Spain. IBERGRID was set up by a joint decision of the Spanish and Portuguese governments at the 22nd Luso-Spanish Summit in November 2006, with the objective of integrating the two countries’ Computation Grid infrastructures within a coherent network, thus increasing their computational capacity and stepping up cooperation between the two countries’ institutions and researchers working in this field.
- Access to Part of b-on Made Available to the University of Cape Verde
Cooperation Protocol with three Portuguese institutions ensuring the University of Cape Verde access to 2,069 scientific periodicals and more than 1 million bibliographical records of the Academic Online Library (b-on) of Portugal.
Under the scope of the official visit of the Prime Minister of Portugal to Cape Verde, a Cooperation Protocol was signed on 13 March 2009 between Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) of the Ministry for Science, Technology and Higher Education of Portugal, FCCN – Foundation for National Scientific Computation, ANACOM – ICP - National Communications Authority, and the University of Cape Verde, regarding the Knowledge Library Online (b-on).
- 6th Meeting of the Policy Board of the European Grid Initiative
The 6th Meeting of the Policy Board of the European Grid Initiative (EGI) took place on 1 March 2009, taking advantage of the holding of the 4th EGEE User Forum / OGF 25 event from 2 to 6 March 2009, in Catania, Sicily, Italy, which involved 630 participants.
Portugal participated in the EGEE – Enabling Grids for E-sciencE in Europe Project through LIP - the Experimental Particle Physics and Instrumentation Laboratory (Lisbon and Coimbra), of the Universities of Porto and Minho, the Centre for Plasma Physics at IST (Instituto Superior Técnico), and IEETA – the Institute of Electronics and Telematics Engineering (IEETA) and the University of Aveiro.
- 5th Meeting of the Policy Board of the European Grid Initiative
The 5th Meeting of the Policy Board of the European Grid Initiative (EGI) was held on 20 January 2009 in Prague, the Czech Republic.
The President of Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and Professor Gaspar Barreira, Director of LIP – the Experimental Particle Physics and Instrumentation Laboratory, joined the EGI Policy Board as representatives of the National Grid Initiative.
- Meeting of the Joint Portugal – Spain Committee for e-Science Cooperation
The Joint Portugal-Spain Committee for e-Science Cooperation met at the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain, in Madrid on 12 January 2009 to analyse the progress made and plans to be developed under the scope of the cooperation between the two countries with regard to IBERGRID, voluntary computing, supercomputing, the education and research networks of the two countries and open access scientific repositories.The Portuguese delegation was headed by the President of Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), Luis Magalhães, and included the Portuguese coordinator for these cooperation Programmemes, Gaspar Barreira, the President of the Foundation for National Scientific Computation (FCCN – Fundação para a Computação Científica Nacional), Pedro Veiga, as well as individuals involved in the more technical aspects, such as Grid Computing (Jorge Gomes, of the Associated Laboratory LIP – The Experimental Particle Physics and Instrumentation Laboratory), Supercomputing (Manuel Fiolhais, from the Centre for Computational Physics of the University of Coimbra), of Voluntary Computing (Rui Brito, from CNC – Centre for Neurosciences and Cellular Biology of Coimbra) and open access scientific repositories (Diogo Gomes, from FCCN).
- 3rd Conference on Free Access to Knowledge
The 3rd Conference on Free Access to Knowledge took place on 15-16 December 2008 at the University of Minho-Braga (Amphitheatre B1, Pedagogic Complex II - Gualtar Campus), organised by the Documentation Services of the University of Minho with the support of FCCN – Foundation for National Scientific Computation, under the scope of the project to set up the Open Access Scientific Repository of Portugal (RCAAP – Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal) with financing by Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), and with the co-financing of the Operational Programme for the Knowledge Society (POSC).
- 4th Policy Board Meeting of the European Grid Initiative
On 22 September 2008, the 4th Policy Board Meeting of the European Grid Initiative (EGI) was held in Istanbul, taking advantage of the EGEE’08 Conference from 22 to 26 September 2008, which had 450 registered participants.
Portugal participates in the EGEE – Enabling Grids for E-sciencE in Europe Project through LIP – the Experimental Particle Physics and Instrumentation Laboratory (Lisbon and Coimbra), the Universities of Porto and Minho, the Centre for Plasma Physics at IST (Instituto Superior Técnico), and IEETA – the Institute of Electronics and Telematics Engineering of the University of Aveiro, and the Lusíada University (Familicão).
- New b-on site: Online Knowledge Library – More user-friendly and accessible
The new b-on website: (Biblioteca do Conhecimento Online), has been publicly launched with significant improvements in terms of user-friendliness and accessibility for citizens with special needs. The site now satisfies the highest accessibility requirements (AAA) of the W3C – World Wide Web Consortium.
The b-on site offers more than 16 750 full text titles and reference databases. In 2007, the number of articles downloaded by users of this library was 4.2 million, while in 2006 it had been 3.6 million, 3.4 million in 2005, and 2.1 million in 2004, figures which show a very high usage rate.
- 3rd Policy Board Meeting of the European Grid Initiative
On 1 July 2008 the 3rd Policy Board meeting of the European Grid Initiative (EGI) took place at CERN – the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva. The main items on the agenda were: Approval of the Board’s regulations, preparation for the election of the Chairperson of the Board and the tender for the localisation of the services of the future EGI organisation, and debate concerning the future of e-Infrastructures in Europe.
The President of The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and Professor Gaspar Barreira, Director do LIP – Laboratory for Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics, form part of the EGI Policy Board as representatives of the National GRID Initiative.
- 2nd IBERGRID Conference
On 12 and 14 May 2008 the 2nd IBERGRID Conference – Iberian Computation Grid Network took place. IBERGRID was set up by a joint decision of the Spanish and Portuguese governments at the November 2006 Portugal-Spain summit. The objective was to integrate the two countries’ Computation Grid infrastructures within a coherent network, thus increasing their computational capacity and stepping up cooperation between their institutions and researchers and reinforcing scientific cooperation between the two countries’ institutions and researchers working in this field.
- 2nd Meeting of the Consultative Committee of the European Grid Initiative Design Study Project
On 14 March 2008, the 2nd meeting of the Consultative Committee of the European Grid Initiative (EGI) will take place at the Ministry for Universities and Science in Rome, Italy.
The President of The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) will become part of the Consultative Council of EGI as a representative of the National GRID Initiative , and this Council is chaired by another Portuguese representative, Professor Gaspar Barreira. The meeting of the Consultative Council will be preceded by a workshop analysing various aspects of the constitution and organization of EGI.
- Open Workshop on e-Infrastructures
To mark the Portuguese Presidency of the EU, the e-IRG – e- Infrastructures Reflection Group’s Open Workshop on e-Infrastructures is being held on 11th – 12th October 2007 in Lisbon at the National Civil Engineering Laboratory in Lisbon. It aims to stimulate interaction between the scientific community and bodies responsible for coordination, monitoring and consultancy for scientific policies related to e-Infrastructures. The workshop agenda includes interventions on the National GRID Initiative, the IBERGRID – Iberian Computation Grid Network cooperation plan, different aspects of Computation Grid network data bases and security, and the perspectives of the European Grid Initiative, the next generation of the European GEANT3 and FEDERICA networks , the EGEE – Enabling Grids for E-sciencE project and PACE – Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe, which are initiatives that Portugal is participating in via various institutions. - 1st IBERGRID Conference
The 1st IBERGRID – Iberian Computation Grid Network Conference is being held on 14th to 16th May 2007 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. IBERGRID was set up by a joint decision of the Spanish and Portuguese governments at the November 2006 Portugal-Spain summit. The objective was to integrate the two countries’ Computation Grid infrastructures in a coherent network, thus increasing their computational capacity and stepping up cooperation between their institutions and researchers and reinforcing scientific cooperation between the two countries’ institutions and researchers working in this field. As one of the instruments for intensifying collaboration between Spanish and Portuguese institutions and researchers, the decision was taken to hold a series of annual conferences, alternating from one country to the other, starting with this conference.
- R&D Projects in the GRID Computation field
In the scope of the National GRID Initiative , the FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology published the public notice of a call for proposals for R&D projects in GRID Computation and for projects demonstrating and applying GRID Computation, which is open from 1st November to 15th December. - INGRID'06 Day – 11th Nov 2006
Marking the opening of the 1st call for proposals under the National GRID Initiative, INGRID’06 Day is being held on 11th November 2006, from 8 am to 6.15 pm in the Auditorium of the Science Faculty on the Universidade do Minho’s Gualtar campus in Braga. For information and enrolments, go to the corresponding web pages. An FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology initiative, with the collaboration of the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and the support of the Universidade do Minho, the day intends to contribute towards facilitating applications for the aforementioned call by the scientific and technological community and to transmit information about opportunities in this area in the European Union’s VII Research Framework Programme. - National GRID Initiative Launch
The launch of the National GRID Initiative will be held in the Pavilhão do Conhecimento in Lisbon on 29th April 2006 from 3 pm to 6.30 pm at a session chaired by the Minister for Science, Innovation and Higher Education. The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) is in charge of preparing and organising this session and initiative.
The meeting agenda comprises interventions from guest speakers, namely from the European Commission, CERN and GRID research and computation centres in Spain, who will be speaking on the European Commission’s vision of GRID computation and various European projects in this field, including infrastructure, scientific and medical imaging projects. Speakers will present the state of play of GRID Computation in Portugal and international cooperation projects in this field, which will be discussed by a panel of researchers and companies from different parts of Portugal.
- New b-on Knowledge Library Online Portal: More User-Friendly and with New Functions
The national academic and scientific community has today been given access to the new b-on – Knowledge Library Online portal, which is more user-friendly and streamlined.
The portal, which has been available since April 2004, now has new and more significant functions. It is now easier for users to find what they are looking for in the vast array of content available on b-on: more than 16000 full text titles and reference databases.
In addition to the basic functions that were available on the old version, such as the federated search engine, the single search interface and the personal area, different interface types are now available for different user types (beginner, standard or expert) with streamlined search, navigation and results interfaces, an A-Z list by institution type (standard or hospital) and crucial background help.