An infrastructure being developed at the University of Évora (UÉ) will enable the storage and sharing of research data across diverse fields with public organisations, businesses, and higher education institutions. UÉ, alongside the polytechnics of Beja and Santarém and other universities, collaborated to establish the Alentejo Research Data Centre (CDIA).

Created under a contract with the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), this initiative aims to provide researchers with a secure and transparent platform to store and access valuable data. “This data centre allows research data to be stored securely and transparently so that other researchers or interested parties can access and use it”, stated Paulo Quaresma, UÉ’s vice president for Research, Innovation, and Internationalisation.

Unlike conventional data centres that focus on specific disciplines, the CDIA embraces a multi-disciplinary approach, collecting and storing data from various research fields. “It is not for the area of Biology or Health or Astronomy. The focus is on the region, the Alentejo, where the data that is being generated and collected in the various areas can be stored safely and reused”, Paulo Quaresma explained.

This approach fosters innovation by allowing researchers to build upon existing data and develop new models. “It is increasingly through this method that we can also evolve in these areas of research and innovation”, he added.

The CDIA is being developed using the supercomputers Oblivion and Vision, housed at UÉ’s High-Performance Computing Centre (HPC). These supercomputers were acquired around five years ago with European funding. “In November 2024, we submitted an application to the [regional program] Alentejo 2030, which is currently under analysis, to reinforce and update these supercomputers”, the vice-president revealed, noting that the proposed investment is approximately 500 thousand euros.

If approved, the funding will significantly enhance CDIA’s capabilities, increasing its processing and storage capacity to support a growing volume of research data.