UC-NETWORK 2019 (Phase 2) - NETWORK University Cooperation in Cuba (phase 2)

CU2019NET033A105 01/01/2019 - 31/08/2023 Strengthening the ICT role in Cuban Universities for the development of the society The NETWORK program aims to strengthen the ICT role in Cuban universities so that, from their transformative position, they can promote development through a more connected and smart society (Programme’s dream). The programme is developed in six universities in the country (including the IUC programme of Oriente as a special partner) that guarantee national coverage. Its implementation is carried out through three thematic projects (RESICT, ICTSYS and ELINF) that during the first phase focused on the development of good university practices in ICT related sciences through pilot experiences for its generalization to the MES (Higher Education Ministry) system. The second phase of the programme aims to achieve the consolidation of these outcomes by each thematic projects and their generalization to other sectors of society by increasing their impact and sustainability. For its part, the project 1 RESICT "Strengthening the research on ICT and its knowledge transference to the Cuban society" is oriented to increase the ICT impact in the society by the introduction of applied research, new scientific results and high quality human resources formation. PhD formation will continue being a key factor for scientific production through a well-structured PhD programmes on ICT relate sciences supported by Doctoral School and summer schools with attractive tailor-made and ad-hoc courses for the industry sector. This research project as the main project of the programme will be supported by two other projects (P2 ICTSYS and P3 ELINF). The “Open ICT system and management” project 2 ICTSYS will offer ICT infrastructure and services for research an academic activities. High quality IT services like cloud computing and scientific computing (High Performance computing and Big Data) is foreseen for making super computing available to all Cuban researches. During second phase, stronger IT departments are expected, increasing their impact and sustainability by offering high quality ICT services not only at partner universities but also contributing to the digitization of the society. The usage of FOSS and DevOps movement will be promote to Cuban software development sector. During first phase the project ELINF “ICT supporting the educational processes and the knowledge management in higher education”, was able to develop some pilot projects as part of a technical reference model aimed to develop the virtual Cuban university. It included Digital library (ABCD) and institutional repositories (Dspace), virtual learning environment (Moodle) and learning analytics (LeMo), research discovery and expert finding (VIVO), metadata extraction (darkaiv), authority control (virtuoso) within others. Second phase is more focused to the complete realization, consolidation and interoperability, in order to transform the education and science processes and the way that the contents and data are produced and shared using an open data and open science approach. The programme support unit has only been so far focused on coordination actions for a proper implementation of the academic and research activities in the Higher Education System. Technology transfer or commercialization of products and services is a new activity for most of the Cuban universities. PSU will develop additional actions that are aimed to identify needs in external stakeholders, the industry sector or other sectors of society. The creation of technology transfer offices (TTO) in the partner universities will be fostered, promoting a regulatory framework that favors the development of sustainability actions. Other sustainable actions like promoting joint projects, consultancy services and boost participation in research funding calls will be attended.