As countries across the world have watched in horror at the spread of the coronavirus, scientists across the world have come together, stronger than ever, focusing their considerable resources on understanding and fighting the virus.
Underpinning this worldwide collaboration and data-intensive research, GÉANT and our NREN partners have continued to deliver high-reliability, high-speed, high-bandwidth connectivity and vital access services that enable teams from different organisations, countries and continents to work together.
In particular, services are being provided for key COVID-19 research initiatives supported by the European Commission –including the European Molecular Biology Laboratory European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBLEBI) COVID-19 research initiative, the 18 research and innovation projects on coronavirus, the Research Data Alliance (RDA) COVID-19 Working Group and the Virus Outbreak Data Network
(VODAN).
Alongside scientific endeavours, the demand for tools and services enabling real-time communications and remote learning has also been very clear. GÉANT and our NREN partners have met this demand both through their own offerings, accelerating and customising these where possible (e.g. eduMEET and openUp2U), and through facilitating commercial offerings.
The GÉANT community itself is also being proactively supported, through increased, focused Special Interest Group (SIG) and Task Force (TF) activity, such as the SIGs on Network Operations Centres and Marcomms and the newly launched TF on Educational Services and Activities, and through targeted communications and engagement, including the GÉANT Community Café, a regular virtual meeting place for all of our community where conversation, innovation, ideas – not to mention friendships – flourish.
It’s why we exist
Whether urgent COVID-19 research, health and medicine more generally, particle physics, space, earth observation, energy, or arts and education – the GÉANT network underpins and is critical to all this work. And the European research community depends on it – 100% of
all high-performance computing runs on the GÉANT network – which although taken for granted, is a responsibility never taken lightly.
GÉANT and our NREN partners will continue to support the pursuit of innovative research and education, remaining crucial to European
and global research at all times and especially in times of crisis. Stay safe, stay well, and stay connected!
