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Global Connectivity
GÉANT links to the Americas, the Mediterranean, Central Asia, Asia-Pacific and will in the future also connect to Southern and Eastern Africa, bringing the number of countries connected to the GÉANT network to over 80 worldwide.
Together with networks in these regions, GÉANT is helping to create a global virtual research community that aims to bridge the digital divide. In this section we highlight recent developments with those networks.
ALICE2: Networking Latin America
Tom Fryer, International Relations Officer, DANTE
 ALICE2, the successor to the ALICE project (2003 to 2008), was launched in December 2008. Co-funded by the European Commission the 45-month ALICE2 project aims to encourage and support collaborative research within Latin America and between the region and Europe.
Having established CLARA, the Latin American research and education networking organisation, and connected a total of twelve NRENs to the Latin American network infrastructure RedCLARA, the ALICE project was awarded a high rating in its Final Evaluation. This led to the ground-breaking move of CLARA assuming responsibility for the management and financial control of the ALICE2 project from DANTE.
Expanding geographical reach
One of the fundamental goals of the ALICE2 project is to expand the geographical reach of the network to countries not yet connected. An initial success was achieved in May 2009 when Costa Rica became the 13th Latin America country to be connected to RedCLARA. At the end of 2009 Bolivia also became a Partner of the ALICE2 project and efforts are now being made to connect Bolivia to the RedCLARA network. Work also continues to include Paraguay and later Honduras, Nicaragua and Cuba in the ALICE2 project.
Capacity building is also a vital component of ALICE2. Among the work to assist emerging NRENs, CLARA organises frequent technical training courses. In 2009, the focus points of the training provided were grids, routing, resilient network design concepts and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). The twice-yearly CLARA-TEC meetings also provide invaluable training opportunities for the technical staff of Latin American NRENs. Security and technical awareness were the themes in 2009. Video-conferencing will be the topic at the ALICE2 meetings to be held in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, in April 2010.
Increasing bandwidth and strengthening links with Europe
With the development of the Latin American R&E network infrastructure in mind, CLARA held two connectivity procurements in 2009. Increasing the bandwidth of the transatlantic link interconnecting GÉANT and RedCLARA is of great importance to CLARA and efforts to achieve this continue.
2009 also saw the election of the first woman President of the CLARA Board when Martha Giraldo of the Colombian NREN, RENATA, succeeded Carlos Casasús of CUDI, the Mexican NREN.
In 2010, the Latin American R&E community is now involving itself in arts and humanities collaborations with Europe. Following the successful digital recreation in Europe of lost instruments such as the epigonion and barbiton, efforts are now underway to recreate a Latin American flute-like instrument made of bone and a drum using the compute-power enabled by research and education networks. The first performance of these newly recreated instruments will take place at the launch event for the ALICE2 project which is due to take place at the EU-LAC Ministerial Meeting on 14th May in Madrid, Spain.
For more information, see:
ALICE: http://alice.dante.net/
RENATA: www.renata.edu.co/
TEIN3: Expansion marks new milestone on road to an inclusive information society in Asia
 The Trans-Eurasia Information Network initiative –TEIN – created the first large-scale research and education network for the Asia-Pacific region. Now in its third phase, it connects regional researchers with their counterparts in Europe via GÉANT, providing the Asia-Pacific countries with a gateway for global research collaboration, and promoting the growth and development of countries across the region.
New countries bring total number of partners to 19
Now through the addition of seven countries in South Asia, TEIN3 will link over 45 million researchers, students and educationalists in 8,000 institutions, enabling closer collaboration to underpin critical projects, education and research across the region.
 This network expansion, which aims to contribute to bridging the digital divide and providing access to the latest technologies for developing countries across Asia was formally announced at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Workshop in December 2009.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Cambodia all join the project, bringing the total number of partners involved to 19.
Building an inclusive information society
Inaugurated in 2009, the TEIN3 network is at the heart of building an inclusive information society in the region. TEIN3 already connects researchers in China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia. €12 million funding from the European Union, continuing its backing of the TEIN project, is being matched by contributions from Asian partners. It is co-ordinated by DANTE, a not-for profit organisation which currently operates regional networking projects for research and education in Europe, Latin America and the southern Mediterranean rim.
The TEIN3 network will build on its predecessor, TEIN2, to enable collaboration on projects with high societal benefit, including such areas as telemedicine, earth observation, e-learning, disaster warning and crop research.
“The expansion of TEIN3 into the Indian sub-continent marks a significant milestone in the development of research networking across Asia-Pacific,” said David West, TEIN3 project manager. “The addition of these new members means that TEIN3 now covers 45 million research users and provides the opportunity to directly benefit over 60 per cent of the world’s population. This will not only help bridge the digital divide, but build an inclusive society with technology at its heart.”
For more information, see:
TEIN3: www.tein3.net
ASEM: http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/asem/index_en.htm
EUMEDCONNECT2: Sustaining world-class research between Europe and the Arab world
 EUMEDCONNECT2 is the high-capacity IP-based data-communications network serving the research and education communities in seven countries across the southern Mediterranean, including Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia, enabling them to participate in collaborative projects in areas such as e-Health, e-Learning, e-Culture and climate research.
With a direct link to GÉANT, EUMEDCONNECT2 allows approximately 2 million users in around 700 institutions across North Africa and the Middle East to collaborate with their peers at more than 3000 research and education establishments in Europe.
 Third EU-MED event sees major announcement
On 31 March the third in a series of high-level policy meetings was held in Brussels, Belgium. The EU-MED Event saw the announcement of the launch of the Arab Scientific Research and Education Network (ASREN), marking a major step towards sustaining ICT infrastructure for research and education in the Mediterranean region for e-Science across Arab nations.
ASREN is to be created as a legal entity under the auspices of the Arab League and the United Nation’s Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID) to help secure sustainable e-Infrastructures across the Arab world. ASREN seeks to build on EUMEDCONNECT2, setting out to widen its geographical footprint by connecting other Arab national research and education networks (NRENs) in addition to the current members of EUMEDCONNECT2: a strategic step that is expected to lead to long-term sustainability of e-Infrastructures in the Mediterranean and the neighbouring Gulf region, potentially serving a population of over 250 million people and ensuring that scientists and academics in the region can continue to participate in world-class research and education activities.
A network vital to the region
EUMEDCONNECT2 underpins many vital research projects in the region, bringing societal benefit to the populations of member countries. Recent highlights include:
- Collaboration between French and Tunisian neurosurgeons in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of epilepsy - see "GÉANT in Action"
- Participation of Mediterranean high-physicists in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments to discover the origins of the Universe
- Assessment of earthquake hazards across the region
- Agricultural research against the backdrop of desertification and limited water resources
- Making education more flexible and accessible through e-learning initiatives
For more information, see:
EUMEDCONNECT2 www.eumedconnect2.net
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