News & Events

According to an article published in ‘NUANCE: Newsletter of the UbuntuNet Alliance: Networks, Collaboration, Education’, having a well-trained technical team is paramount to operating and maintaining the high speed UbuntuNet Network. So far, the Alliance has trained about 40 network engineers from almost all NREN Members in Eastern and Southern Africa. The trainings are a result of a multi-partner capacity building programme and the focus has primarily been on advanced routing and campus network design and management.

The goal of UbuntuNet Alliance capacity building program is to ensure that there is enough human resource capacity in Member NRENs to be able to plan, implement and operate advanced data networks. Also the Alliance would like to ensure that NREN networks are properly designed and configured in time for connection to the regional UbuntuNet backbone being built under the AfricaConnect project; and to provide technical support to the Alliance in the running of UbuntuNet.

CONNECT is the magazine from the GÉANT community. The aim is to provide a regular update on the project and its vital work in supporting European research, as well as giving an insight into the users who depend on the network, and the community that makes GÉANT what it is.

The May issue of CONNECT, the magazine dedicated to research and education networking is out now!

You can view it view booklet style or you can download the PDF here. Printed copies are also available from  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Louis Papaemmanuel, Project Director of iMENTORS, SU, will present iMENTORS at the IST-Africa Conference during Session 8d: eInfrastructures (Thursday, May 08, 2014). He will explain how using iMENTORS and open aid data enhances the coherence of international aid. IST-Africa 2014 is taking place in Mauritius (06 - 09 May) and is the ninth in an annual series of Ministerial Level Technology Research Conferences.

iMENTORS (www.imentors.eu) is an interactive resource, the first of its kind, to contain  information about all known e-infrastructures in Africa in the past five years. Launched for public use and input in July 2013 iMENTORS provides you with the necessary tool to visualise e-infrastructures and all related projects in Africa.

UbuntuNet-Connect 2014, Lusaka, Zambia

The iMENTORS e- newsletter keeps you abreast of any new project developments and relevant topics.

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The aim of iMENTORS is to help scientists, universities, research and education networks as well as policy-makers and international funders to gain valuable insights on the gaps and progress made in the region and to identify synergies when planning future ICT initiatives within the African continent.

A Common NREN Information Model has been developed to document the work achieved by national research and education networking organisations (NRENs) around the world. A global panel that formed in January guided the work, which was a collaboration between APAN, ASREN, CANARIE, Internet2, RedCLARA, TERENA, UbuntuNet and WACREN, and built on earlier accomplishments in Europe, Asia and Latin America by TERENA, APAN and RedCLARA.

This edition of the iMENTORS newsletter gives you more in-depth insights into current issues in the world of e-infrastructure, research infrastructure, national /regional research and education networks, ICT and data. Read it online!

The NREN Futures study is a sub-study of the ASPIRE project and was set up to look at the current state of NRENs in Europe. From this, recommendations can be made as to how the NRENs should develop to take advantage of developments in technology and business practice in the next five to ten years.

The study used a variety of methods: questionnaires, surveys, interviews and the expertise of the panel members, to collect and analyse the current status, and then to predict how the NREN environment is likely to change in the future. A remarkably consistent view of future developments emerged from the different parts of the study and a range of recommendations and findings are detailed in the study. Because the state of development of the NRENs differs widely, the list of recommendations will be applicable to individual NRENs in different ways and should be adapted and adopted by the NRENs, as they deem appropriate.

The recommendations are:
›› The European Research and Education (R&E) Networking Community (NRENs, DANTE, TERENA, and user stakeholders) need an efficient, strategic management body to act as a single point of contact, capable of responding quickly and with authority.