LISBON, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The University of Lisbon announced Thursday it will invest more than 20 million euros (22.8 million U.S. dollars) in two new data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI), advanced computing and scientific research.
The project, one of the largest digital infrastructure projects in Portuguese higher education, is designed to strengthen Portugal's scientific computing capacity and data sovereignty by enabling the university to securely store and process research data on infrastructure under its own management.
The sovereign cloud platform will support sensitive data in fields including health, biotechnology and precision medicine while meeting high standards of security, availability and governance, according to the university.
"These data centers represent a decisive step to reinforce the scientific and technological capacity of the University of Lisbon, and to place artificial intelligence, advanced computing and the sovereign cloud at the service of research, innovation and society," university rector Luis Ferreira said.
The infrastructure will provide high-performance computing resources, AI applications and secure scientific data storage for research in areas such as clinical studies, drug discovery and epidemiological surveillance.
The investment comes as Portugal and other European countries step up efforts to expand AI computing capacity and strengthen digital sovereignty through domestic cloud infrastructure and advanced research facilities. ■