1. AfREN and AfriGEOSS Yousef Torman Managing Director, ASREN 15 June 2017 Sunyani, Ghana

2. AfriGEOSS Symposium Victoria Falls,
27-29 April, 2016

4. Bonny Khunga, Omo Oaiya, Yousef Torman
Research and Education Network Infrastructure for GEO Data Dissemination
AfriGEOSS Symposium Victoria Falls, April, 2016
Bonny Khunga, Omo Oaiya, Yousef Torman

5. 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

6. What is an NREN?
A National Research and Education Network (NREN) is a dedicated i​nternet 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

7. How do NRENs connect students and researchers?
Regional REN
Regional REN
Regional REN
NREN A
NREN B
NREN C
Universities
Research centres
Hospitals
Laboratories

8. What are the African regional partners involved?
African REN Ecosystem
What are the African regional partners involved?

9. The African REN ecosystem – UA
The regional Research and
Education Network of ESA Region
NRENs from 15 countries
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.

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

14. 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

16. 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

17. InTheField Blog Stories from over 60 networks across 6 continents
Stories from over 60 networks across 6 continents
12 African stories out of 198
We invite you to join

18. 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