An advanced infrastructure for education and research, the Educational Ring (Anel Educacional, in portuguese) was presented in a launch event, this Wednesday (30) morning, in Brasília. It is integrated into the metropolitan network of the Federal District, GigaCandanga, and resulted from a cooperation between the Ministries of Education (MEC) and Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), benefitting institutions linked to both.

With a 40 Gbps connection capacity, the Educational Ring is deemed to be the fastest infrastructure dedicated to education and research in Latin America, and shall provide support to the large national education systems in the country, such as the National Secondary Education Examination (Enem), the Unified Selection System (Sisu) and the Student Loan Fund (Fies), for example.

According to the General Director of the Brazilian National Research and Educational Network (RNP), Nelson Simões, such systems are accessed by millions of Brazilian citizens. With the new support, they gain greater reliability and quality. “The Educational Ring also encourages teaching and research institutions to generate innovation. Once again, RNP fulfills one of its missions, that of developing advanced technologies and solutions. This is part of a policy in which we have taken part for the development of the country, expanding access and internalization of infrastructures”, he stressed, defining the role of the social organization as a connectivity provider for the Educational Ring.

For MCTI’s executive secretary, Emília Curi, the Educational Ring is another result of the excellent experience of the Ministry with Social Organizations (SO), as is the case of RNP. “It is with this support that MCTI moves forward to promote the technological evolution in the country, overcoming of obstacles and keeping up with the speed of technological advancements”, she stated.

The president of the Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination (Capes), Carlos Nobre, also highlighted the structure developed by RNP. “To get a picture of how important this support is, visit the Journals Portal. The entire scientific community has access to the content available, but, oftentimes, these people have no idea about the entire infrastructure behind this”.

The president of the Management Committee of the GigaCandanga Network, Leonardo Lazarte, mentioned in his speech the background of the evolution of the project that enabled its launch this year. MEC’s general Infrastructure coordinator, Jairton de Almeida, gave a presentation on the concept, the topology and the benefits that the Educational Ring will make possible. “It will bring the guarantee of continuity of service, network availability, increased security and investment optimization. This will bring improvements to processes and more benefits to the community”.

Among other functions, Anel Educacional also ensures the safety of the access to the communication networks of the Ministries and supports the achievement of goals of the National Education Plan (PNE). In addition to MEC and MCTI, the University of Brasília (UnB), the Brazilian Center for Research on Evaluation and Selection and Event Promotion (Cebraspe), the Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination (Capes), the Anísio Teixeira National Institute of Educational Studies (INEP), the Brazilian Company for Hospital Services (Ebserh), the National Fund for Education Development (ENDF) and the Brazilian National Research and Educational Network (RNP) are integrated to the Educational Ring.