GÉANT was launched in 2000 by the European Commission and the Member States to upgrade Europe’s research and education networking infrastructure. The EU-funded Trans-Eurasia Information Network (TEIN) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF) have now agreed to link with the Pakistan Education Research Network (PERN).
TEIN and GÉANT together serve close to 100 million researchers in Europe and Asia enabling research collaboration in fields such as climate change, radio astronomy and biotechnology.
“Europe is delighted that Pakistan's scientists and academics are now connected to the global research and education community thanks to this new link,”said Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media. “This is an excellent model for co-operation between North American and European programmes, which I hope we can build on in the future.”
Arden Bement of the US National Science Foundation said, “This represents a major milestone in the development of physical network connectivity between the Pakistan and the global scientific community. It required diligent and sustained efforts of technologists and governments in the US, Europe and Pakistan. Now we must continue those efforts toward our true goal of enhancing global research and education collaborations.”
Scientists at 60 of Pakistan’s universities and institutes are linked in via PERN. Through this link, Pakistan is the first of a series of new countries joining TEIN3, the next generation of EU-funded Asian research networks.
The Commission recently announced a further Euros12 million funding for TEIN3.
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