SEEREN Press Release: Inauguration of the South Eastern European Research & Education Networking Infrastructure

Press Release

Joint research & educational activities towards integrated eScience applications are now possible in the region thanks to GEANT and SEEREN

Athens, 23 December 2003 – The inauguration event of the South Eastern European Research & Education Networking (www.seeren.org) infrastructure is organized on January 9th, 2004 at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH).

The event also addresses the promotion of the Action Plan for collaboration in the field of research and technology between the European Union and the South Eastern European countries (candidates or not) and the promotion of new collaborations. It constitutes a unique opportunity to present the perspectives on implementing and enlarging the European Research Area (ERA), as well as to exchange views with peers from EU and SEE countries.

The SEEREN Inauguration event is organized under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Development. The Minister A. Tsochatzopoulos and the EU Commissioner E. Liikanen will address the event while the Rector of AUTH, I. Antonopoulos will open the workshop. Distinguished invited speakers include the EU Commissioner A. Diamantopoulou, the General Secretary of Research & Technology of the Ministry of Development D. Deniozos, the General Secretary of the Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs A. Tsouroplis, the Special Secretary for the Information Society of the Ministry of Economy and Finance Y. Caloghirou, Ministers responsible for Research, Science, Technology and IST of the SE European Countries, the local authorities of Thessaloniki, policy makers and high-level officials from the EC, research administrators, experts in the area of electronic infrastructures and key representatives of the Information Technology (IT) industry.

SEEREN is the South Eastern European segment of the multi-gigabit pan-European Research and Education network GEANT. The SEEREN initiative is materialized with co-funding from the European Commission under the coordination of the Greek Research & Education Network, GRNET. SEEREN interconnects the Research and Education Networks of SE Europe (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, FYRoM, Romania, Serbia & Montenegro) amongst themselves and to the Pan-European Gigabit Research Network GEANT. SEEREN is gradually becoming a platform of cooperation and integration of all SE European NRENs to the "acquis communitaire". International projects, such as SEEREN, not only help the participants to resolve networking issues, but also serve as a problem solving model, thus positively affecting the Democracy and Equity Cause in the involved countries.

The SEEREN project outcome is a mosaic of commitment and tremendous effort by many people. The initiative greatly benefited from the partnership with the Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe (DANTE), the Trans-European Research & Education Networking Association (TERENA) and the Hungarian and Romanian Research and Education Networks.

More Information:
http://www.seeren.org/events/inauguration

Contact:

Jorge-A. Sanchez-P.
SEEREN Project Manager
tel.: +30 210 7474243

Dimitra Kotsokali
SEEREN PR Manager
tel.: +30 210 7474253