CESNET’s E-infrastructure Receives Honorary Mention Award in 2014 Innovation Prize

Prague, 5 December 2014. The CESNET national e-infrastructure, which is designed to serve scientific, research and educational purposes, has received a honorary mention award in this year’s Innovation Prize contest that has been organised by the Association of Innovative Entrepreneurship of the Czech Republic since 1996. The ceremonial announcement of this year’s results was held in the presence of Senator Petr Bratský in the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, earlier today.

The contest examines the best innovation products of domestic entrants. 302 projects were consulted this year, 14 of which would further compete for prizes in the event. The results were presented by a jury of twelve members, with presence of leading institutions such as the Czech Academy of Sciences, corresponding ministries, as well as the Research, Development and Innovation Council. The leading criteria for assessment was the technical advancement of the product, originality of its design, position in the market, efficiency as well as environmental aspects.

CESNET national e-infrastructure represents a transparent environment as well as services for the transfer, storage and processing of data. The services are primarily designed for organisations engaging in research, development and innovation, regardless of their scientific fields. CESNET association builds and develops the national e-infrastructure within its strategic project CESNET Large Infrastructure, which is closely related to other international projects.

“The Honorary Mention in the Innovation Prize is a great achievement. It is a recognition of the long years of our effort that is shared by CESNET staff and other experts from our partner organisations. We would never have amounted to such complex tasks without their dedication and skill, without institutional and financial support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic and without the help of all CESNET members: public universities and the Czech Academy of Sciences,” says Jan Gruntorád, director of CESNET association.

The principal components of the CESNET e-infrastructure consist of a highly permeable national communication infrastructure, national grid infrastructure, data storage infrastructure, and an environment for cooperation of distributed teams. They are complemented with tools and services for management of access to e-infrastructure resources, tools for provision of data security and protection, as well as tools for efficient collaboration.

The unique feature of the CESNET e-infrastructure lies in the fact that it is being purposefully built according to specific needs of research and education which are quite different from requirements on ICT support. This makes the e-infrastructure a set of unique services that is not available in the market.

Furthermore, the CESNET e-infrastructure greatly aids in the availability of state-of-the-art information technology in all regions of the country, which is a vital prerequisite for the upholding and promotion of the competitive levels of research and development in the Czech Republic.

The CESNET Association was founded by Czech universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in 1996. It is engaged in research and development in information and communication technologies and builds and develops the CESNET national e-infrastructure for research and education. With its research activities and accomplishments, CESNET represents the Czech Republic in international projects, most notably the pan-European GÉANT network building project and grid projects (EGI.eu), and participates actively in their implementation.

Last change: 9.12.2014