18 July 2017, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Eastern Partnership region links to the pan-European GÉANT network, July 2017.
The research and education (R&E) communities in Ukraine will be better able to exchange and collaborate with their peers from around the world, following a tenfold increase in speed in the network link between Ukraine and the GÉANT pan-European R&E network.
By upgrading this link from 1 to 10 Gigabits per second in June 2017, the EU-funded Eastern Partnership Connect (EaPConnect) project and its Ukrainian partner URAN are fulfilling the goal of bringing a world-class R&E network to Eastern Partnership countries, in line with the European Neighbourhood policy that supports increased interconnectivity and economic development for the European Union and its neighbours.
“This new connection with significantly higher bandwidth is wonderful because it allows new possibilities for Ukrainian researchers in high-energy physics and biomedicine. For example, the Kharkiv physical technical research institute has new possibilities to exchange data with the CERN Hadron Supercollider over the special science logical network LHCONE: firstly, we increased the speed of exchange more than twice and secondly reached the long-awaited quality of the channel – the percentage of packet loss is less than 10-8. And another interesting result – the speed of access from the National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery to medical databases increased several times due to connecting via the 10 Gbps link.” Volodymyr Galagan, Executive Director of URAN
The upgraded link between Ukraine and the GÉANT pan-European network is based on services provided by RETN (UK) and includes the following features:
- a protected lambda service Kiev-Vienna – 10 Gbps
- a protected ‘local tail’ in Kiev that provides good quality and high-availability service for URAN.
“It is an honour for us to win GÉANT’s approval and to continue our cooperation, providing international network services and 24/7 technical support underpinned by an infrastructure based on the most up to date technology. We are certainly ready to support GÉANT’s strategic developments in the future and are looking forward to doing so.” Andrey Gazizov, RETN’s CTO in Europe
Opportunities for development and collaboration
This improved connectivity enhances the collaborative capabilities of researchers within the Eastern Partnership countries – Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Georgia – and allows them to participate in global research collaborations.
“The world needs greater understanding in all kinds of fields, such as seismology, climate change, biomedical sciences or high-energy physics. GÉANT is proud to support the ability of Ukrainian researchers to contribute their talents and expertise to such global collaborations, and to facilitate the growth of those talents and expertise within their country and the Eastern Partnership region.” Erik Huizer, CEO of GÉANT
Researchers from Eastern Partnership countries will have the opportunity to explore how R&E networks and other e-infrastructures can support their work during the 2nd Eastern Partnership E-infrastructures Conference (EaPEC 2017), which will be hosted by UIIP NASB (BASNET) in Minsk on 27-28 September. The event will feature a keynote speaker from the Human Brain Project, presentations from the second regional Enlighten Your Research awards, and a focus on research and e-infrastructures for open science. Information and registration: https://www.eapconnect.eu/eapec/
Background information
About URAN:
URAN is a non-profit association of institutes of higher education, institutions of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, and the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine. The URAN Association coordinates and integrates the efforts of its members to: ensure the creation, development and use of a sole Ukrainian national research and education network; increase the level of education and science in Ukraine; implement principles of an information-oriented society; competitively join Ukraine to the global information-oriented area. URAN also represents the interests of the Association members in institutions of government authority as well as in Ukrainian and international organisations.
Website: http://uran.ua/
Contact: Volodymyr Galagan gal@uran.ua
About EaPConnect:
The Eastern Partnership Connect (EaPConnect) project sets out to create a regional research and education (R&E) network in Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus. This will interconnect the national R&E networks (NRENs) in six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries and integrate them with the pan-European GÉANT network. The partner countries are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The overall objective is to decrease the digital divide, improve intra-regional connectivity and facilitate participation of local scientists, students and academics in global R&E collaborations. By interconnecting the R&E communities across the region and with their European counterparts, EaPConnect will create a gateway for talented individuals in the EaP countries to be truly global players. EaPConnect is managed by networking organisation GÉANT in collaboration with the NRENs in the six beneficiary partner countries, and includes ten associate partners from other world regions. The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargements Negotiations (DG NEAR) is contributing 95% (€13m) to the cost of the EaPConnect project.
Website: www.eapconnect.eu
Twitter: @EaPConnect_News
Facebook: @EaPConnectProject
Contact: Laura.Durnford@geant.org
About GÉANT:
GÉANT is Europe’s leading collaboration on network and related e-infrastructure and services for the benefit of research and education, contributing to Europe’s economic growth and competitiveness. The organisation develops, delivers and promotes advanced network and associated e-infrastructure services, and supports innovation and knowledge-sharing amongst its members, partners and the wider research and education networking community.
Website: www.geant.org
Twitter: @GEANTnews
Facebook: @GEANTcommunity
Contact: Laura.Durnford@geant.org
About DG NEAR:
The mission of the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) is to take forward the European Union’s neighbourhood and enlargement policies, as well as to coordinate relations with European Economic Area – European Free Trade Association (EEA-EFTA) countries insofar as Commission policies are concerned. By implementing assistance actions in Europe’s eastern and southern neighbourhood, DG NEAR supports reform and democratic consolidation, and strengthens the prosperity, stability and security around Europe.
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/about/directorate-general/index_en.htm
About RETN
RETN has 32000 km of fibre on its pan-European DWDM network with significant presence in Eastern Europe and Russia, offering services to carriers, ISPs, large enterprises, CDNs, governmental organisations, Hosting and Cloud Providers.
Website: http://retn.net/
Twitter: @RETNnet
Facebook: @retn.net
Contact: market@retn.net
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