The Online Knowledge Library(b-on) is an online library that provides access to the full text of thousands of journals and ebooks from some of the leading international scientific publishers.

The following types of institutions can join b-on:

- Higher education institutions (public or private);

- Scientific research and technological development institutions (public or private);

- Institutions integrated in the Public Administration;

- Private non-profit institutions;

- Hospital institutions Access to b-on is closed to institutions with profit-making purposes. More information is available on the b-on website.

Access to b-on has membership costs. Find out more by contacting the b-on team via e-mail: info@b-on.pt.

Access to the content is made from any computer connected to the Internet and whose IP address belongs to the b-on network. This access can be made from the b-on search service, from the publishers' sites or through any search engine.

Being a library, the main service provided by b-on is access to the content. However, b-on also has a training service (in person and online), a statistics service and various electronic services (search portal, context service and preservation service). Find out more at www.b-on.pt.

Educast is a video management service for simple registration and distribution of teaching content (lessons). The central system ensures the necessary post-processing so that they are available to students through the Internet and mobile devices, in the following formats: streaming, desktop and mobile.

The content production process is simplified into three steps: Record, Edit and Publish.

You can find out more on the service's help site.

FCCN offers various distance learning support services which should be used depending on the educational objectives of the sessions. For dynamic interactive sessions, with collaboration between students, the Colibri service should be used. For sessions in which the classroom work is to be made available later on the subject portal for viewing by other students, the educast service should be used.

The educast service has a number of unique features, aimed at the academic community, compared to other services, namely: synchronous recording and playback of the speaker's presentation, online content editing that allows parts of the video to be selected and highlighted in new content, integration with distance learning tools, explicit rights of use through creative commons, display of content on open education repository networks, controlled access to content via "RCTSaai". It is also an infrastructure hosted at the FCCN datacenter, so it is not subject to any limitations imposed by foreign commercial services. See some examples of content created and made available via educast.

You can start using educast right now, using your computer with a webcam. The service offers software for Windows and Mac that allows you to make recordings and upload them automatically to the educast servers. Once transferred, you can edit and publish the videos autonomously. For best results, there are local support teams in each institution.

The main goal of the eduroam network (Education Roaming) is to provide the academic community with a wireless network service available between participating institutions.

All institutions connected to the RCTS network (RCTS IP Service) can join.

There are no additional costs for entities subscribing to the RCTS IP service.

Currently, the eduroam network is available in 76 countries. In Portugal, 61 institutions are members of this service. In Portugal, almost all educational institutions and state laboratories provide access to this network. The list of locations can be seen here.

Authentication is performed at the user's home institution, using their institutional credentials.

Any mobile device (laptop/phone/tablet) can be used to connect to the eduroam network.

You should contact FCCN|FCT at noc@fccn.pt or visit the service's website.

The PTCRIS consists of a framework of standards, principles and rules that aim to ensure the integration of information systems supporting scientific activity in a single, coherent and integrated ecosystem.

The PTCRIS regulatory framework is based on international reference standards and codes of good practice, namely persistent identifiers, data exchange standards, information security and privacy standards, among others.

By creating, through a common regulatory framework, an integrated information ecosystem, the PTCRIS promotes the integration of various information systems supporting scientific activity.

It thus allows the creation of an open ecosystem from which all agents can easily benefit, through services aimed at greater efficiency in the processes of management, production and access to information on national academic and scientific activities.

In addition to the regulatory framework, the PTCRIS also ensures the management and development of infrastructures that support the management of Science and Technology in Portugal (for example, the curriculum management system Ciência Vitae, the National Register of Organisations and the National Register of Research Funding and the synchronisation framework) as well as services with strong added value, namely the Business Intelligence system and the Data as a Service.

PTCRIS is aimed at all actors of the Portuguese Scientific and Technological System and all those interested in the results of its activity.

It is an authentication and authorization infrastructure (AAI) that aims to simplify the access of the education and research community to web services.

An identity provider guarantees the necessary infrastructure for user authentication. All institutions connected to the RCTS network (RCTS IP Service) can join as identity providers.

All entities that provide one or more services that are deemed to be of interest to the academic and research community.

See the list of connected institutions.

Check the RCTSaai services catalogue to know all the services.

Students, teachers, researchers and employees of the participating institutions.

Authentication is performed at the user's home institution, using their institutional credentials.

You should contact FCCN|FCT at noc@fccn.pt or visit the service's website.

There are no additional costs for entities subscribing to the RCTS IP service.

If you are one of the persons responsible for your organization's RCTS access you should contact noc@fccn.pt, which after validation will send you an address request form. If this is not the case, you should contact your organization's IT staff.

No. RCTS still has a reasonable stock of IP addresses to distribute to its members, subject to demonstrated need and description of the infrastructure that will use the addresses to be allocated.

Yes. FCCN only delegates larger block spaces that have been assigned to it (by RIPE/NCC), and its integrity must be maintained. This means that if your organization disconnects from RCTS, you will no longer be able to use the same public IP address. In this case, you will have to carry out a renumbering process in order to "return" the addresses delegated within the scope of RCTS to FCCN .

stat.ripe.net is a public access service provided by RIPE/NCC.

RCAAP is a portal aggregator (meta-repository) of documents deposited in the various institutional repositories existing in Portugal and Brazil. In RCAAP are gathered and indexed not only the description (metadata) but also the full text. You can access the RCAAP portal atwww.rcaap.pt.

Institutions that have scientific resources in electronic format and meet RCAAP 's aggregationcriteria can join RCAAP.

The RCAAP portal provides access to scientific and academic literature whose full text is in open access. However, there may be some documents that do not meet these requirements, either because they are in restricted access due to embargo or because they do not contain the full text of the document but only the metadata records.

The institutions that currently participate in the RCAAP project, as well as the respective repositories can be consulted through the Portal directory.

Of the set of activities/services developed under RCAAP, the following stand out:

RCAAP Portal - The RCAAP Portal is the central component of the Open Access Scientific Repository of Portugal project. It is a single point of search, discovery, location and access to thousands of documents of a scientific and academic nature, including journal articles, conference papers, theses and dissertations, distributed by the repositories that integrate the network, both national and Brazilian.

Project website - concentrates all relevant information related to the RCAAP project

Luso-Brazilian Directory - The directory service aims to provide at a single point a complete and exhaustive list of Open Access repositories and journals available in Portugal and Brazil.

Scientific journal hosting service - SARC - Scientific Journal Hosting Service was created to develop the online publication of scientific journals in Portugal, facilitating the management of scientific journals and supporting best practices. The service is based on the OJS - Open Journal System platform for publication and management of publications, an open source system with a wide community of users and a strong impact in the open access domain. Consult the journals hosted in the service at: http://revistas.rcaap.pt

Scientific Data - The Service for Hosting Scientific Data Repositories (SARDC) aims to provide a platform for free access to data created and used in the research work of national institutions. The service is available at: http://dados.rcaap.pt.

Additionally, RCAAP performs, develops and implements activities in the fields of promotion of the open access movement, support services (in particular to repository managers), develops standards and defines procedures. Get more information about RCAAP services in the project's web page.

This service ensures the provision of various types of certificates, ensuring security, authenticity, confidentiality and integrity to the information sent over the Internet.

All institutions connected to the RCTS network (RCTS IP Service) can join.

See the list of connected institutions.

This service provides four categories of certificates: Server, GRID, Personal and Code Signing. For more information consult the RCTS Certificates space.

Yes, the certificates are issued by an issuing entity recognized worldwide as CA - Certification Authority.

The personal certificates of this service are valid and identify a user as being part of an institution. However, and because they are not issued by a CA recognized by the National Security Office, they cannot replace those of the Citizen's Card.

You should contact FCCN|FCT at noc@fccn.pt or visit the service's website.

There are no additional costs for entities subscribing to the RCTS IP service.

RCTS IP is the oldest service provided by FCCN and guarantees IP connectivity between RCTS institutions and the Internet.

The type of organizations that can access the RCTS IP is defined in the document "RCTS AUP". Essentially, they are all organizations that develop teaching and/or scientific research activities.

Between 100Mbps and 10Gbps. These speeds are synchronous, i.e. the transmission capacity is equal to the data receiving capacity.

These situations always require an analysis of the requirements and are analysed individually.

No. The RCTS IP service only provides service to IP addresses that are owned by the RCTS or the organizations themselves. In the event of a disconnection from a commercial ISP, and the address is not owned by the organization, that address will have to be "returned" to the commercial ISP.


Business traffic' is communications originating from networks that are not research and education networks and do not belong to entities that have a direct traffic exchange link with RCTS or the GÉANT network. Academic traffic' is all other traffic originating from all other origins.

No, no filtering is performed on service delivery.

The costs are calculated according to the nature of the proposing organisation, its geographical location and the tariff in force.

Yes, the minimum period of stay is 12 months. After this period, the request to terminate the contract must be made within 30 days' notice.

Yes, in addition to monitoring, a supervision service (human support) is provided during the same period.

That list is available here.

60 days. This timeframe may vary depending on geographic location and existing telecommunications infrastructure.

Please send an email to noc@fccn.pt. Once the service is active, only registered administrative and technical contacts can make requests for information or changes to the active service.

RCTS Plus is the virtual private network service that FCCN offers its members.

The entities eligible to subscribe to the RCTS IP service.

Virtual private network ports can be configured at 100Mbps, 1Gbps or 10Gbps.

Yes, the minimum is two sites. Multiple sites located at different locations can be connected in this Service.

No. The service provided is completely private. There is no intervention by FCCN at IP level (or higher), the addressing itself can be chosen by the organizations belonging to the same service.

The costs are calculated according to the nature of the proposing organisation, its geographical location and the tariff in force.

The minimum period of permanence is 12 months. However this period may be shorter depending on the type of communication contract that supports the service. After the initial 12 months, the request for cancellation of the service must be made with 30 days' notice.

Yes, in addition to monitoring, a supervision service (human support) is provided during the same period.

This list is available at

Please send an email to noc@fccn.pt. Once the service is active, only the registered administrative and technical contacts will be able to make requests for information or changes to the active service.

To incidents that originate or destination IP addresses belonging to the RCTS.

Only to entities connected to the RCTS, through accredited contacts.

It shall send to report@cert.rcts.pt all data in its possession concerning the occurrence.

The use of antivirus is mandatory on Windows systems, and optional on Linux or MacOS-based systems.

You can perform a preliminary test by uploading the file on the website www.virustotal.com, but above all you should notify the RCTS CERT of this occurrence.

Do not open files of unknown origin, and in terms of web access, respect browser alerts regarding potentially malicious websites. It is also very important to make copies of content that is not regularly backed up by the organisation. Relevant information must be stored on the organisation's server (which has backups) and not on individual workstations (which do not have backups). Finally, never share authentication data (passwords).

RCTS Fibre is a service that provides fibre optic connections between two locations, without any active equipment in between. Because it is a separate physical medium from other RCTS communications, these are totally isolated.

To entities eligible to subscribe to the RCTS IP service and that need to connect two sites in optical fiber without relying on third party technologies.

You can request the service or ask for more information by sending an email to noc@fccn.pt. We will jointly find a solution that best meets your requirements.

The implementation time will always be analyzed case by case, depending on the existence or not of optical fiber between the sites.

Yes, the financial details of activation and operation depend on the technical solution found.

A dark fibre optic pair is provided, from the RCTS fibre network to the User Entity, between the two locations. All equipment and configurations are the responsibility of the entity requesting the service.

No, because no RCTS active equipment is used. However there is support from a 24x7x365 supervision team that will provide support in any situation that may occur.

Yes, in addition to monitoring, a supervision service (human support) is provided during the same period.

RCTS Lambda is a high performance point to point connection service using the RCTS optical network. It allows private communications between two locations, isolated from other RCTS communications and therefore with protected capacity.

The entities eligible to subscribe to the RCTS IP service.

You can request the service or ask for more information by sending an email to noc@fccn.pt.
A solution that best meets your requirements will be found together.

The implementation time will always be analyzed case by case, depending on the existing infrastructure between the sites.

Yes, the financial details of activation and operation depend on the technical solution found.

The communication between the two sites is performed through the RCTS optical transmission platform, based on DWDM technology.
A specific optical wavelength is reserved to establish the connection between the two sites without interfering with the other RCTS communications.
This platform allows the transport of several network protocols, such as Ethernet or Fibre Channel, among others. The usual transmission speed is 10Gbps, but other options may be analyzed.

One of the requirements is the existence of optical fiber between the two locations. This service also requires the existence or installation of optical transmission equipment between the ends of the link.

Yes, the service may be implemented with a redundant topology.

 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that allows the user to establish telephone calls through a data network, converting an analogue voice signal into a set of digital signals, later sent through an Internet connection in the form of packets with IP addressing. Although not new, this technology has now reached a state of maturity and quality that allows its application in production environments through interconnection with conventional telephone systems. Likewise, the offer of equipment and services from operators has been growing exponentially.

One of the main functionalities that the VoIP@RCTS service allows is Mobility, that is, the possibility of the extension of each user to accompany him everywhere as long as he has access to a network point.

Voice mail also gains a new dimension, being possible to integrate it with electronic mail. Thus, any message that arrives to the voice mail, may also arrive simultaneously to the electronic mailbox.

Authorisation levels for outgoing calls can now be set per user according to their needs.

The creation of virtual rooms for conferences is another feature of the system. By disclosing the room to other participants, there is the possibility for anyone to be part of that virtual room for audio conferences.

Of course, all the services that exist in the traditional telephone system are also available, such as extension blocking, call transfer, among other features.

One of the objectives of the RCTS VoIP service is to allow the reduction of costs in voice communications. This reduction is achieved not only through the routing of calls to different operators through the least cost route, but also because virtually dedicated IP connections are created between the institutions subscribing to the service, allowing calls to be made between them at no associated cost.

The RCTS VoIP service is aimed at all public higher education institutions and the research community that are connected to the academic network via RCTS Plus.

You can contact FCT | FCCN to request information using the details provided in "Contacts".

Although both services are based on the transmission of audio and video, they differ in the direction and scope of the audience. Designed for one-way communication, from a small number of speakers or speakers to large groups of viewers, the video broadcasting service (videocast) allows video broadcasting of events such as seminars, conferences or sporting events. Videoconferencing services (COLIBRI) are geared to the two-way communication of a limited number of participants, where everyone has equivalent levels of participation and can participate and "confer" whenever necessary.

All the members (Teachers, Researchers or Students) of the entities present in RCTS can use the video services of FCCN free of charge. Online services such as Colibri, Videocast or access to Educast videos work on a self-service basis, after identity validation through the federated authentication process (learn more about RCTSaai). Other more specialized services, such as the Studio or access to videoconference rooms, require prior booking, which can be done through the respective service pages.

All the members of the entities present at RCTS and registered at RCTSaai have valid accounts with access to the services of FCCN. Occasionally, there are access errors which must be validated with the institution's local technical infrastructure managers. If the organization to which you are affiliated does not yet belong to RCTS, but fits in with the objectives and mission of this network, please contact us. In duly validated situations, it is possible to create temporary accounts to access all the services provided by FCCN.

The main purpose of the studio's technical infrastructure is to facilitate access to a range of audiovisual and production resources for RCTS member organizations. The use of this equipment is therefore free and exclusive to these entities. As FCCN is a public, non-profit organization, it would be inappropriate and unfair to the market to rent this infrastructure on a widespread basis. The use of the studio by non-members for commercial purposes is therefore forbidden and rental is not possible. However, for content of an academic, cultural or scientific nature, but not for profit and in line with the studio's mission, FCCN could evaluate production support.