The Government of Spain allocates €27.7 million to the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) to reinforce underwater connectivity between the Canary Islands and the Spanish mainland

The Government of Spain is going to allocate €27.7 million to the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC), a body dependent on the Ministry of Science and Innovation, to reinforce the connectivity of the Canary Islands with the Spanish mainland and, in particular, with the island of La Palma.

Minister Diana Morant, who visited the IAC facilities on La Palma yesterday, said that the government is working to make Spain a top country for science and thus attract and retain talent through cutting-edge, internationally recognised infrastructures.

The project, financed with funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan through the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, will improve the quality and resilience of RedIRIS and facilitate the development of new routes for broadband services.

RedIRIS is the Spanish academic and research network that provides advanced communications services to the national scientific and university community. It is financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and is included in its map of Singular Scientific and Technical Installations (ICTS), and it is managed through the public business entity Red.es, which is attached to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation.

This project is part of the UNICO-Banda Ancha Interconexión programme managed by the department, the aim of which is to provide very high-capacity networks (one gigabit or higher) to research centres such as the IAC, defence connectivity networks and training centres, among others.

The project will improve the connectivity of the IAC.

By reinforcing the underwater connectivity of the island of La Palma, the project will also contribute to reconstructing the island's economy based on digitalisation and knowledge and will improve the IAC's connectivity for the development of its scientific activity.

The IAC manages the Canary Islands Observatories, including the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) on La Palma and the Teide Observatory (OT) on Tenerife, which house the telescopes and instruments of some 60 institutions from more than 20 countries.

The sites and observatories are interconnected by the high-performance optical network provided by RedIRIS. Strengthening this connectivity will make it easier to attract international investment in new and more advanced telescopes to the IAC.

Visit to the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory

On her trip to La Palma, the minister visited the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory together with the director of the IAC, Rafael Rebolo, and its deputy director, Casiana Muñoz.

Morant went to the Gran Telescopio de Canarias (GRANTECAN) and toured the control room and the dome accompanied by the director, Romano Corradi.

Last, he visited the Cherenkov telescopes (MAGIC and LST), which use the atmosphere as a "natural converter" to detect high-energy gamma rays produced in cosmic sources.

Non official translation