The Vietsch Foundation and EUNIS sign Memorandum of Understanding to jointly support advanced technology development for scientific research and higher education

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Valentino Cavalli, chair of the Board of Trustees of the Vietsch Foundation and Ilkka Siissalo, outgoing President of EUNIS, the European University Information Systems, signed a Memorandum of Understanding during the EUNIS 2017 Congress in Münster. The two organisations see significant potential synergy in their activities, and wish to collaborate on shared goals.  EUNIS will support the Vietsch Foundation in the acquisition of projects flowing from its incoming activity stream. Eligible proposals, with demonstrable beneficial impact for scientific research and higher education will be considered by the Vietsch Foundation for funding. “We expect the collaboration with EUNIS to enhance significantly our relationship with the higher education community, particularly by reaching out to universities and campuses in Europe” says Valentino Cavalli, and adds “we believe that such a dynamic community will come up with a lot of innovative ideas for advancing technology to support scientific research and education”.  Underlining the unique position of EUNIS as the European platform for exchange of best practice and research in higher education information systems, Ilkka Siissalo states “We are looking forward to foster innovative projects and studies from the wide EUNIS communities by connecting them to the generous support of the Vietsch Foundation. EUNIS is grateful for this opportunity and appreciates the trust of the Vietsch Foundations.”

The mission of the Vietsch Foundation is to promote research and development of advanced Internet technology for scientific research and higher education. The Vietsch Foundation fulfils its goals in two ways: First, it contributes funding to specific research and development projects that demonstrate potential value to progress European and global research and education networking. And second, each year it awards a medal of honour to people who have contributed to the development of services or technologies of lasting value that are used by the networking community and its users in research, development and education. The Foundation was created through the last will and testament of Willem Karel Vietsch (1952–2014), a Dutch expert, a leader of the international Internet community, and also the Secretary-General of TERENA, a former association of European national research and education networks. For details visit: http://www.vietsch-foundation.org