Academician Rasim Alguliyev, vice-president of ANAS, general director of the Institute of Information Technology, spoke at the opening ceremony of "The 5th Eastern Partnership E-infrastructures Conference - "EaPEC 2022" held in Baku.
Academician Rasim Alguliyev reminded that Azerbaijan is one of the countries that joined the Eastern Partnership initiative of the European Union in 2009, and said that within the framework of this partnership, effective cooperation relations were established and successfully developed between our country and the European Union countries and institutions in various spheres.
"One of the priority directions among these relations is the establishment of stable communications between Azerbaijan and the European Union using modern technologies, and the deepening of integration between different spheres of activity," said academician R. Alguliyev, presented by the EaPConnect project established by the European Commission in 2015 for partner countries. He talked about the possibilities. He said that this project aims to establish a high-speed regional internet network in the fields of science and education of the partner countries and ensure its integration into the GEANT Science and Education Network of Europe. The vice-president of ANAS noted that Azerbaijan has been represented in the GEANT Association through the AzScienceNet network of the Institute of Information Technologies since 2010 and pointed out that the EaPConnect project has been active in Azerbaijan since 2015.
The academician provided information about the important works carried out in Azerbaijan within the framework of this project, noting that the scientific and educational institutions of the country are equipped with reliable internet traffic at the speed of 3GB/s over the AzScienceNet network, the Control Center and infrastructure of the AzScienceNet network have been significantly improved and their integration into the GEANT network with higher potential is ensured. delivered. He added that, among other things, various trainings were organized to improve the professionalism of specialists, necessary support was provided for the participation of a large number of scientists in international scientific conferences, as well as EduRoam, EduGain, etc. of the GEANT network. A number of such services are used in science and educational institutions. R. Alguliyev expressed his deep gratitude to the European Commission, GEANT and EaPConnect project managers for all the support provided.
Emphasizing that currently only 33% of scientific institutions and 42% of higher education institutions across the country use this internet traffic, the academician spoke about the reasons why the scientific and educational community of our country cannot take advantage of the opportunities of the EaPConnect project.
According to the academician, the Internet traffic purchased within the project cannot be used 24/7, mobile usage is not provided, commercialization of the offered network services, etc. Solving such issues can open wide opportunities for using the potential of the project.
"Today, the main problem facing scientists, teachers, and students in Azerbaijan is not access to the Internet, but quality scientific and educational online content," said the director general of the institute. , touched on the necessity of considering its characteristics. Academician R. Alguliyev added that one of the most important issues for the scientific and educational community of Azerbaijan is to provide access to international scientific databases such as WoS, SCOPUS, Springer, to continuously equip higher education institutions with educational materials that are adequate to the challenges of the modern era, and the European Union countries granting access to the e-libraries of universities, scientific centers, and providing support for the transfer of distance learning technologies to our country are important issues.
R. Alguliyev, who drew attention to the implementation of very important measures within the framework of the Digital strategy planned for 2030 in the European Union, noted that in this context, in addition to quality communication with partner countries, the e-science and e-education environments that are being formed in these countries are also important for Europe. it is strategically necessary to consider the issues of harmonious integration into the relevant e-infrastructures.
