CANARIE announced today that Nunavut has joined Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN), initiating the process to connect Nunavut to the CANARIE backbone network that links provincial and territorial networks to each other and to the rest of the world. Nunavut will connect to the CANARIE network through its host organization, Nunavut Arctic College. The participation of Nunavut represents the “last spike” of inclusion for Canada’s NREN. This exciting development was celebrated on August 28 at the College through a signing ceremony. Nunavut makes Canada’s NREN whole, now comprising all thirteen provincial and territorial partners, and fulfills the Federal mandate to have a pan-Canadian research and education network.
In the short term, CANARIE will support the technical and administrative development of its new NREN partner to optimize and secure access to research and education resources for all Nunavummiut. Equally important, the new partnership improves access for the rest of Canada and the world to research from the rich and diverse communities of Nunavut.
“Congratulations to the Nunavut Arctic College for connecting Nunavut to the National Research and Education Network,” said the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. “This partnership, supported by the Government of Canada through CANARIE, will help advance research partnerships and education in Northern communities across Canada and around the world.”
“This is an historic moment that fulfills a longstanding goal to extend Canada’s NREN to Nunavut. It strengthens ties within Canada and to the global research and education community,” said Jim Ghadbane, President and CEO of CANARIE. “We are also very grateful to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada for accelerating this initiative by providing additional funding to CANARIE in 2019.”
“Nunavut Arctic College is honoured to be Nunavut’s designated institution in this important network. Over the last year, the college and its government partners have worked to achieve this goal. Signing on to CANARIE is an important stepping stone that will further improve research and education resources for all Nunavummiut,” said the Honourable Patterk Netser, Minister responsible for Nunavut Arctic College on the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut.
“Canada’s NREN partners extend a warm welcome to our new partner Nunavut Territory and its host organization, Nunavut Artic College,” said Bala Kathiresan, President of BCNET and Chair of the NREN Governance Committee. “The new connectivity will create unprecedented research and education opportunities for the Nunavut community and, in turn, bring the world’s access to research from this vast northern region. Our pan-Canadian approach in building a national network further strengthens Canadian leadership in science and technology.”
The NREN is an essential collective of infrastructure, tools, and people that bolsters Canadian leadership in research, education, and innovation. It connects Canadian universities, colleges, cégeps, research hospitals, government research labs, school boards, business incubators and accelerators to each other and to research and education networks around the world. This purpose-built global network enables data-intensive research and education that would not be feasible over commercial networks.
Watch Nunavut Join Canada’s NREN!
Press Release originally published on 31 August 2020 on the CANARIE website: https://www.canarie.ca/nunavut-joins-canadas-nren/
