[Carlos Delgado Kloos]: CertiDigital is a project under the UniDigital Plan
that provides funds to Spanish public universities
through the Ministry of Universities, within
the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
The project involved 23 universities from the Spanish public university system.
The objective is the development of digital credentials.
[Antonio Ruiz]: European Learning Model is a data model
defined by the European Commission
to express any educational achievement,
whether at formal or informal level or even at non-formal level.
[Andrés Prado]: We have identified the appropriateness
to locate an infrastructure at a common neutral point,
which would be RedIRIS, and deploy this solution in a cloud environment
using the OCRE framework agreement to which RedIRIS is a signatory.
[Begoña del Pino]: The project is financed by funds from the Recovery,
Transformation and Resilience Plan through a plan of the Ministry of Universities
called UniDigital plan for the modernisation
and digitisation of the Spanish university system through direct subsidies
that have been given to universities.
Everything that is done in this project must also be useful and
a service for the universities as a whole. [Carlos Delgado Kloos]: The project is going to use
technologies proposed by the European Union. Specifically, there are two technologies:
one is EDC, (European Digital Credentials for Learning)
and the other is EBSI (European Blockchain Services Infrastructure).
[Antonio Ruiz]: As it is a model conceived at European level and that represents
all the achievements, it would allow us
the exchange of information between different countries,
that credentials that have been issued here could be taken by one person
to another country. And that an employer or another academic institution
can understand it and validate it. [Andrés Prado]: We have
the guarantees that are already provided by OCRE, the european framework agreement,
in terms of data protection and compliance
with regulations at European level. On the other hand we have worked
to design a solution that allows for a much more granular administration
and that establishes appropriate permissions
for each of the roles assigned to
the universities that will use the platform. [Begoña del Pino]: The proyect
is the opportunity to make a definitive and joint breakthrough
for this digital certification. In addition to involving all
university collectives, it also involves employers
and companies. Therefore, this is the opportunity, at the right time,
for the Spanish university system to equip itself with the capability
to issue secure digital credentials.
That will be seen by employers and that will put us
in a good position to be able to carry out the training,
with formal qualifications, and also with what we understand to
be lifelong learning from the university. [Carlos Delgado Kloos]: We are here today at this conference
organised in Puerta de Toledo where
the 23 universities are coming to work in
groups on these use cases. The variety of use cases is
very large and therefore we are grouping the different universities
by specific use cases so that they can share experiences and
ideas. The important thing now is to identify the problems,
ask the right questions and then find the right answers.
[Antonio Ruiz]: It is a complex project and above all it requires
taking and adapting our systems to be able to issue this
type of credentials collecting all the information. Perhaps the biggest challenge is
how to collect this evidence so that it can then be issued from the system.
[Andrés Prado]: I think the opportunity, but also
the challenge, it is the deployment of
a platform that makes it possible to offer common services
in the university environment through RedIRIS and in processes
as important as the accreditation of academic achievements.
[Begoña del Pino]: The challenge is that it is not just a question of providing a technological infrastructure
but it is a project that involves a change
in the management of the university, a change in the accreditation procedures
that we now follow and in which
many other units have to be involved, units related to teaching,
with university extension and not only digital transformation
but also internationalisation. So the challenge is for all of us
be able to train ourselves to make that change.
[Carlos Delgado Kloos]: That is really a great opportunity
to help the citizens to be trained, to be prepared for
what the labour market needs today. As a challenge
we can say that it is also a very changing field with technologies
that change worldwide, with many different players,
that intervene with many different implications
in the deep structure of the university but also outside.
So it is a complex issue that should be attacked,
should be analysed and should be solved adequately.