AfREN and AfriGEOSS Yousef Torman Managing Director, ASREN 15 June 2017 Sunyani, Ghana
AfriGEOSS Symposium Victoria Falls, 27-29 April, 2016
Bonny Khunga, Omo Oaiya, Yousef Torman Research and Education Network Infrastructure for GEO Data Dissemination AfriGEOSS Symposium Victoria Falls, 27-29 April, 2016 Bonny Khunga, Omo Oaiya, Yousef Torman
Why does research and education need a dedicated Network? Exchange huge amounts of scientific data in a secure, cost-effective and reliable way Enabling international collaborations hence retaining more local scientists Access common educational and scientific databases and libraries Catch up with global educational standards and reduce inequalities Empower and retain local youth thanks to secure and optimised e-learning tools
What is an NREN? A National Research and Education Network (NREN) is a dedicated internet infrastructure and service provider to the research and educational (R&E) communities within a country: NRENs provide connectivity and services to higher education establishments (typically universities) and research institutes, but can also support schools, further education colleges, libraries, museums, teaching hospitals and other public institutes. NRENs are a vital component in e-learning, e-science and e-research strategies. NRENs participate to the creation of an inclusive information society, the reduction of inequalities and the empowerment of local communities in the face of brain drain. There are over 100 NRENs worldwide. 33 of them in Africa
How do NRENs connect students and researchers? Regional REN Regional REN Regional REN NREN A NREN B NREN C Universities Research centres Hospitals Laboratories
What are the African regional partners involved? African REN Ecosystem What are the African regional partners involved?
The African REN ecosystem – UA The regional Research and Education Network of ESA Region NRENs from 15 countries Eb@le, DRC EthERNet, Ethiopia iRENALA, Madagascar KENET, Kenya MAREN, Malawi MoRENet, Mozambique XNet, Namibia RwEdNet, Rwanda SomaliREN, Somalia SudREN, Sudan TENET, South Africa TERNET, Tanzania RENU, Uganda ZAMREN, Zambia BERNET, Burundi UA is a Regional Research and Education Network of East and Southern Region of Africa. It operates a Network backbone that inter-connects the various National Research and Education Networks. The Alliance has current membership of 15 countries… shaded in dark blue, the one in light green (South Sudan, Angola, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland). As for Zimbabwe, The I accompanied Alliance’s CEO, Dr Hoba last week and we had a fruitfull meeting at the Ministry of ICT, and latter we made a presentation at the Committee of University Vice Chancellors, on the need to have an NREN established in Zimbabwe. We are hopeful that this will be actualized during the very near future.
The African REN ecosystem – ASREN Planned Network 10 Arab African Countries: Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti and Comoros 12 Arab Asian Members: Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, KSA, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Yemen
The African REN ecosystem – WACREN RerBenin – Benin RIC- Cameroon RITER - Côte d’Ivoire GabonREN – Gabon GARNET – Ghana MaliREN – Mali Niger-REN – Niger NgREN – Nigeria snRER – Senegal TogoRER – Togo
Connecting people and continents together EumedConnect and AfricaConnect: have allowed scientists and students to connect regionally and internationally with their peers have catalysed the development of NRENs across the continent
GEANT, AfREN, AfricaConenct2, GEO and AfriGEOS Virtual Meeting: GEANT, AfREN, AfricaConenct2, GEO and AfriGEOS 28 September 2016 Main meeting outcomes All agreed that we need to have concrete collaboration and work together so that AfriGEOSS communities can make use of the network infrastructures. To explore whether any of the AfriGEOSS sites in Africa are connected to any NREN Agreed to identify one or two sites per cluster as pilots to be connected through the NREN of that country ASREN to work closely with NARSS who is leading Data & Infrastructure Coordination team for AfirGEOSS
AfREN and AfricaConenct2 to support AfriGEOSS Discussed and presented in AfREN regional conferences Ubuntunet Alliance Conference Entebbe Uganda 2 November 2016 ASREN e-AG2016 Conference Beirut, Lebanon 30 November 2016 WACREN Annual Conference Abidjan, Ivory Coast 30 March 2017 GEANT TNC17 Conference Linz, Austria 29 May 2017
InTheField Blog Stories from over 60 networks across 6 continents www.inthefieldstories.net Stories from over 60 networks across 6 continents 12 African stories out of 198 We invite you to join
Conclusions and Recommendations AfREN (ASREN, WACREN and UA) will continue to: Work closely with AfriGEOSS on connectivity to facilitate smooth and secure exchange of GEO data within Africa and beyond Identify AfriGEOSS sites and centers to be connected to AfREN Promote and disseminate AfriGEOSS in its events and other media channels Exploring with AfrigEOSS secretariat on the possibility of capacity building activities under the Africa Training Initiative (ATI) that was launched recently Identifying stories to be published in our blog AfriGEOSS are invited to: Explore R&E connectivity in your country (i.e. are you connected to an NREN?) In case your center/site is not connected, please ask for connectivity through your lobbying channels Provide us with research and other success stories that we can publish in our blog