Tuesday November 26 2019, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Cambridge, UK
Researchers, academics and students across Central Asia and Europe who depend upon the services of the Central Asia Research and Education Network (CAREN), gather today at the 4th CAREN Regional Conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
CAREN provides a high-performance Internet network dedicated to research and education (R&E), facilitating communication, information exchange and collaboration between over 300 universities and research centres across Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Thanks to its interconnection to the pan-European GÉANT network, CAREN allows seamless collaboration between Central Asia and Europe and provides access to the global R&E community. Jointly funded by the European Union and Central Asian national research and education network (NREN) partners, the project is coordinated by research networking organisation GÉANT.
Themed “Partnership for the future of Research and Higher Education in Central Asia” and jointly hosted at the Kyrgyz State Technical University the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences the event brings together practitioners from the Central Asian research and higher education community, policy makers, connectivity providers, ICT vendors and will also draw on the expertise of representatives from other regional networks and organisations, such as GÉANT and its Asian counterpart Asi@Connect. Keynote speakers include Veronika Di Luna and Chris Atherton of GÉANT, Askar Kutanov of CAREN CC and Sanggyun Kim of Asi@Connect.
Over the next two days, participants will hear and see first-hand from scientists and academics how CAREN’s services make a real difference in advancing collaborative research in areas such seismology, water management, climate change, e-Learning and e-Libraries.
CAREN CC operates the only regional Gigabit network connecting Central Asia researchers and educators to other regional academic networks. Besides this network, and maybe even more important, CAREN CC supports advanced ICT services for academia in Central Asia, such as eduroam, eduGAIN and video-conferencing facilities.
CRNC2019 is organised by the CAREN CC and is hosted by the Kyrgyz Research and Education Network organisation, in conjunction with the Kygyz State technical University, the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences and the Kyrgyz Turkish Manas University.
Launched in 2009, the EU-funded Central Asia Research and Education Network (CAREN) project sets out to provide a high-capacity internet network for the research and education (R&E) communities in Central Asia. The current project phase (CAREN3) started in 2016 and currently interconnects the R&E communities of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Links to other regional networks, such as the pan-European GÉANT backbone, give CAREN global reach, allowing seamless data exchange and collaboration between researchers and educationalists in Central Asia and the rest of the world. Up to 18 December 2019 CAREN is funded with €10M by the European Union via the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation (Grant Contract DCI-ASIE/2016/372-47). The project is operated and managed by research networking organisation GÉANT, in partnership with the national research and education networks (NRENs) of the participating partner countries. For more information, visit https://icaren.org/
GÉANT is Europe’s leading collaboration on network and related 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. For more information, visit www.geant.org
Kyrgyz Research and Education Network Association (KRENA) was registered in January 2002 as organisation of legal entities in the form of association and non-profit organisation. KRENA provides 1 Gigabit connectivity to European academic network GÉANT, Universities, Higher Education Institutions, Research Institutes of the National Academy of Sciences in Bishkek, several hospitals and libraries. KRENA provides to users services as video conferencing, eduroam, eduGAIN, promotes telemedicine domestically as well as with overseas partners in Japan, and ensures stable connectivity for data transfer on environmental monitoring. KRENA plans to expand its connectivity to the regions of the Kyrgyz Republic. The main goal and slogan of KRENA is “Towards the building of the Information Society in Kyrgyzstan based on knowledge”. For more information, visit www.krena.kg