Web page:
www.fundecyt.es
Contact point:
Manon von Leeuwen
FUNDECYT (Fundación para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y Tecnología en Extremadura) has a central role in the economic, structural and innovation strategy development on Extremadura. FUNDECYT was established in 1995. It is a non profit institution and its main objective is to stimulate co-operation between firms, universities and public administrations in order foster regional development. It is an initiative launched with the support and guidance of the Regional Government, the University of Extremadura and two regional financial Institutions. Nowadays, the institution has more than 50 employees. The majority of its employees have higher or medium University Qualifications.
In April 2002 the regional government together with Fundecyt launched the GNU/Linex project, and operating system and software applications based on GNU/Linux, this made the region of Extramadura the first region in promoting, developing and distributing FLOSS, centered in the needs of the users and giving them the technical support necessary.
One of the projects developed in the area of FLOSS, with financing from the Interreg III programme, the main objective of the eSafer project is to demonstrate the viability of the Open Source Option and its actual and potential contribution to the sustainability and interoperability of e-government strategies and services, and standardized production of tools, applications and e-contents, developed and implemented. It addresses the areas of e-Business, e-Learning and e-Government.
Fundecyt has realized a study already on FLOSS on a regional basis, covering the points mentioned in the project the Region of Extremadura. Our experience in the implementation of our own F/OSS solution has provided us a rich information on the barriers to F/OSS. At the moment we are in the roll out of the implementation into all sectors and areas of the regional government and into the business world of Linex. (Linex is the adaptation of Linex for the Region of Extremadura). Specific adaptations of the application are being made to adapt it to the specific needs of the different areas and institutions. We have and are participating in different European projects that address the issues mentioned and which allow for a benchmarking of the different experiences in F/OSS implementations. Many of the tasks mentioned below have been carried out completely or partially in the process and framework of the regional strategy for information society.
The structure of the Autonomous Regions, as existent in Spain, requires not only to address the national programmes but also the regional programmes. Competences related to education, health, and others have been transferred to the regional governments. The regional governments have a large autonomy in the policies related to the adoption F/OSS in public sector.
The Regional Strategy for Information Society, which includes the strategy on F/OSS as one of its main pillars, establishes the guidelines on how to take this strategy forward. The experience in the implementation of this strategy provide valuable input for the tasks mentioned, currently a Research Center on F/OSS is being set up in the region.
We have a large experience in the issues related to creating awareness among the target public through workshops and training courses. We have established cooperation agreements with other regions and have been lobbying heavily to get F/OSS on the national political agenda, having been able to provide a successful experience which has been integrated as lessons learned in national policy.