On the 4th of November 2008, Prof. Dina Alexandrou of the CaSToRC presented the research center at EU-Med Event 2 - e-Infrastructures in the Mediterranean. This conference brought together invited policy makers and civil servants from relevant ministries and institutions, executives and officials from international organisations such as the European Commission, the Arab League, UN agencies, private companies and foundations, as well as representatives from the user community. Around a hundred public officials and specialists from 20 countries in Europe, the Mediterranean region and Middle East attended the day-long event, which culminated in the launch of EUMEDCONNECT2 – the high-capacity data communications network that links the research and education communities of the Mediterranean region with those in Europe.

The presentation given by Prof. Alexandrou outlined the fact that while continous upgrading of computer hardware is necessary to maintain continous production of computational research of a high level, it is not sufficient. There are a number of other contributing factors such as having appropriate software and algorithms, competent scientists, integration of local computational resources with the high-end computers and the foresight to invest in new research directions. Not least of these factors is connectivity, without which large scale computational cannot function efficiently and sustainibility becomes an unachieveable goal.

A feature report on the meeting is available here. The programmes and presentations from the event can be found here on the event website.