Services to increase the competitiveness of the knowledge system of Catalonia

Technical specifications sheet

Financing: NextGenerationEU, under the REACT-EU mechanism (Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe), as part of the European Union response to the COVID-19 pandemic within the Catalonia European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2014-2020 Operative Programme.  

Financed amount: 12,730,000 €.

Organisation: Department of Economy and Finance, Directorate General for European Funds.

Execution period: 2022-2023.

Priority area: EP 20 REACT-EU.

Thematic goal: OT13. Promote crisis repair in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its social consequences, and prepare for a green, digital, and resilient recovery of the economy.

Specífic goal: Support for investments that contribute to the transition to a digital economy.

Goal: Promote the competitiveness of the Catalan knowledge system based on two main actions.

Action 1. Expand and improve data services for research

Improve the positioning, impact and visibility of the research conducted in Catalonia, reinforcing the storage and preservation infrastructure. This action includes the following activities:

• Acquisition of equipment to deploy storage services (approximately 10 PB) and reinforcement of facilities.
• Reinforcement, development, and deployment of data services.
• Disk increase assigned to the UNIDISC cloud storage service (approximately 4 PB).
• Conducting pilot tests, final adjustments and putting data services into production.

Action 2. Expand and improve CSUC's digital administration services

Promote the use of these digital administration services by research centres. This includes the following activities:

• Develop new services in the field of digital administration, such as an electronic administration platform, and reinforce and improve current services for the homogenization of the Digital Administration of universities.
• Integration with the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure, at a pilot phase. 
• Integration with cross-border signature mechanisms, at a pilot phase.
• Reinforcement of technical and human resources for the new Digital Administration services.
• Pilot start of the process of automation/robotization services.
• Business architecture.
• Integration of user entities (universities, research centres…) and providers with the UNIFICAT identity federation service.
• Start-up of the developed services.

This project is part of the Next Generation Recovery Plan, as part of the Union's response to the COVID-19 pandemic under the ERDF Operational Program for Catalonia 2014-2020 with a grant of € 12.73 million.