Ciências ULisboa joins project to create one of the largest digital infrastructures for science and innovation

The Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Ciências ULisboa) is one of the partner organisations in an investment of over 20 million euros that will enable the creation of one of the largest digital infrastructures dedicated to science and innovation in Portuguese higher education.

The project, developed in partnership between the Rector’s Office of the University of Lisbon, the Instituto Superior Técnico, Ciências ULisboa and the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM), involves the creation of a distributed infrastructure based on two new data centres: one on the Instituto Superior Técnico campus in Oeiras (Taguspark), and another on the Ciências ULisboa campus in Cidade Universitária. The initiative follows the approval of the proposals ULISBOA CORE – Computational Omics for Resilient Economies and ULISBOA CORE+ – Sovereign AI4Science Cloud for Bio-Digital Data, funded by the Lisbon 2030 Regional Programme.

Scheduled for completion in October 2028, the new infrastructure will significantly enhance the University of Lisbon’s data storage and processing capacity, providing advanced services in artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and the secure storage of scientific information.

For Ciências ULisboa, the establishment of one of these data centers represents a strategic enhancement of the facilities available for scientific research, enabling it to meet the growing needs for processing large volumes of data in areas such as health, biotechnology, precision medicine, clinical research, new drug discovery and epidemiological surveillance. Another key pillar of the project is the creation of a sovereign cloud, which will enable scientific data to be stored and processed on infrastructure managed by the University of Lisbon itself, ensuring high standards of security, availability and information governance. This capability will be particularly relevant for projects working with sensitive and highly complex data.

Besides supporting the activities of the University’s schools, research centres and laboratories, the new infrastructure will also serve the ULisboa Innovation Ecosystem, promoting collaboration with companies, start-ups, spin-offs and industrial partners. The aim is to accelerate knowledge transfer, stimulate the development of new technological solutions and foster the transformation of scientific research into innovation that has an impact on society and the economy. According to the Rector of the University of Lisbon, Luís Ferreira, “these data centers represent a decisive step towards strengthening the University of Lisbon’s scientific and technological capacity and putting artificial intelligence, advanced computing and sovereign cloud computing at the service of research, innovation and society”.

The implementation will take place in stages until October 2028, including the construction of infrastructure, the installation of digital technologies and the certification of the new data centers. With this investment, the University of Lisbon is reinforcing its commitment to digital technologies, artificial intelligence, advanced computing and biotechnology, thereby consolidating its position as one of the country’s leading centres for research and innovation.