Emerging Technologies News Sun Microsystems Portugal Research Network and the Sun Academic Initiative Sun Microsystems Portugal Research Network and the Sun Academic Initiative
- 10/02/2009The aim of the Sun Microsystems Portugal Research Network is to foster research experiments into new digital systems for Portuguese universities in the Sun Labs (California, USA) and for researchers from Sun Labs and North American universities in research centres in Portugal. A protocol to this effect was signed on 10 February 2009, at the Caparica Campus of the New University of Lisbon, by the President of the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), João Sentieiro, by the President of Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), Luís Magalhães, and the Director-General of Sun Microsystems Portugal, Jorge Salamanca, in a ceremony attended by the Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, José Mariano Gago.
The Sun Microsystems Portugal Research Network realises the wishes of both parties to develop pre-competitive research to widen the use of emerging digital technologies and open source applications, as well as reinforce knowledge of the UNIX and Solaris Operating Systems, multicore processor architecture and related software, the development of distributed network computer systems, including Grid Computing and Cloud Computing formats, and network applications based on sensors.
There will be an annual Programmeme of Research Residencies under the terms of the protocol, which foresees Portuguese researchers visiting Sun Labs in California for 2 to 4 month periods, and, in turn, visits by researchers from Sun Labs and North American universities to Portuguese research centres.
During this meeting, the Ministries of Labour and Social Solidarity, of Education, and Science, Technology and Higher Education, the Coordinator of the Technological Plan, and representatives of Sun Microsystems signed another memorandum of understanding which envisages the setting up in Portugal of the Sun Academic Initiative (SAI) which stems from the decision by Sun Microsystems to make its course system based on the Web free to all the educational and training community.
Covered by this agreement are the ICT Academies in Higher Educational Institutions dedicated to Sun Microsystems training and certification which has been prepared by this company and Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), as its contribution to training and preparing Portuguese citizens for the Information and Knowledge Society, to providing a new stimulus to business innovation, overcoming the scientific and technological lag in the country and improving its human resources.
Sun Microsystems is a company founded in 1982 by a group of students from the University of Stanford, California, USA, which is the reason why it incorporates in its mission statement a permanent commitment to the academic community, through the development of educational Programmemes, from which universities and institutions all over the world benefit.