RNP and the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia - Ibict) were visited, on March 13, by two representatives from the Ministry of Industry of Cuba.

At the meeting, were presented possibilities of knowledge transfer between the two countries, the partnerships made with private companies and the knowledge generation process of the two Brazilian organizations.

The Cuban representatives showed interest in taking advantage of the results of RNP’s research and development programs, such as the Working Groups, in using open platform services, such as the Web Conference with Mconf, and in the teaching material of the Networks School (ESR), which is already available in Spanish.

For RNP’s general director, Nelson Simoes, that was the beginning of a rapprochement. “We encourage communication between institutions using the Cuba-Venezuela cable, Alba 1. We suggest the application of such infrastructure in a pilot project, in order to demonstrate the possibility of the optical fiber in relation to the satellite links”, he stated.

Alba-1 began operations in 2012, has a length of 1,600 km and is the result of a partnership between Cuba, Jamaica and Venezuela, in an attempt to promote integration in Latin America.

Since then, the Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks (RedCLARA) has worked to build a rapport in order to get Cuba involved in the initiative, which interconnects the national research and education networks in Latin America to their counterparts in Europe (Géant2) and the United States (Internet2). Through the communication with Géant2 and Internet2, it is possible to connect to the Caribbean countries (C@ribnet), Africa (UbuntuNet Alliance), Asia (APAN, TEIN) and the rest of the world.