Portal of open educational resources EduCapes was officially released with free, public and unpaid access. It was developed by Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination (Capes). The release occurred during a 9th Forum Ordinary Meeting of Coordinators of Brazil Open University System (UAB, in Portuguese), held on September 27 and 28, in Brasília.

The portal is aimed for students and professors of basic, higher and graduation education, searching for materials to prepare courses or improve knowledge. EduCapes was developed as of cooperation of Capes with the Brazilian National Research and Educational Network (RNP), in partnership with Universidade Estadual Paulista ‘Júlio de Mesquita Filho’ (Unesp). The initiative results from culture and information democratization process, in addition of the need to disseminate educational materials produced in courses provided within the UAB System.

The event was also used to celebrate ten years of UAB System and who presented RNP was the deputy director of Solutions, Antônio Carlos F. Nunes. He exposed important pints of partnership with Capes to the audience, and attended a round table about distance education technologies.

At the opening ceremony, Nunes talked about products, services and solutions offered by RNP, focusing on the expansion of technologies aimed for education. “Today, we have over 600 connected institutions, over 1,200 college campuses, federal institutes, research facilities, museums, libraries and university hospitals; 4 million potential users, including students, professors and staff; 180 thousand researchers; in addition to more than 3,800 post-graduation programs. All of this involves great sciences projects, thematic networks and UAB and represents the collaboration of RNP so that education, teaching and research achieve today throughout Brazil”, said the director.

UAB System is directly benefited by the solutions proposed by RNP and by cooperation with Capes. According to Nunes, one of the organization's concerns is to meet the demands of the academic community, to develop and deliver what is really required. “We have the concern to invest in evolution of our services and bring new solution proposals, so they can increasingly optimize, leverage and integrate those located specially in the countryside, outside the capitals, that need virtual infrastructure to access education”, said the manager, also stressing the need to increase the Periodic Portal infrastructure, in order to expand the virtual library availability of Capes.

The round table was discussion space on distance education technologies, involving the contributions that can be applied to area and the need for copyright assignment to open publications. The debate was attended by Antônio Carlos Nunes and two coordinators of DED of Capes: Maria Cristina Mesquita, General Coordination of Distance Education Innovation (CGIE), Alexandre Magalhães Martins, of Technology Coordination in Distance Education (CTED). The meeting was also attended by expert in educational resources (REA), Tel Amiel.