The SEE Forum welcomes three new directors

Three new directors recently joined the South East Europe (SEE) Forum: Tomi Bozhinovski from MARnet in North Macedonia, Aleksandar Popovic from MREN in Montenegro and Hrvoje Puljiz from CARNET, the Croatian NREN.

SEE NRENs work together to address the requirements of the region, in an effort to overcome Europe’s digital divide, by bringing the region closer to the whole GÉANT community and fostering opportunities for collaboration to ensure the optimal use of GÉANT’s infrastructure and services.

The Forum has been steadily working since 2018 with the aim to provide a dedicated point of reference within the GÉANT community where participating NRENs can gather information and exchange practices in order to overcome regional challenges and ultimately make the most of local connectivity.

Via the SEE Forum, the SEE NRENs have been working together and meeting regularly to strengthen their role and R&E in the region. In 2021 the SEE NRENs witnessed the first SEE User Forum in the region where researchers from all economies took part and had a glimpse of the state-of-art disciplines and areas of research across the region.

The SEE directors finally came together again at TNC22 in Trieste this June after over two years of remote meetings, where some of them met in person for the first time.

We approached the recently appointed three new directors who are now part of the SEE Forum and asked them to share with us their views about their role within the forum and the implications for their NREN and country.

Tomi Bozhinovski, MARNet told us: “Being part of the SEE Forum has been incredibly beneficial to MARnet, but also personally to me as a recently appointed director. MARnet is a small NREN in a non-EU country, hence meeting other directors facing and addressing similar issues gives us a strong sense of belonging to this forum. We learn from each other whilst supporting each other and with GÉANT’s help we not only grow as a group but are also able to transfer this experience to our local communities.”

Aleksandar Popovic, MREN, added: “We are privileged to be part of the GÉANT family. Apart from using a wide range of services, cooperation with other members of the global R&E community is very important to us.”

 

Hrvoje Puljiz, CARNET commented: “CARNET has been very active in the vibrant pan-European NREN community for nearly 30 years. As the largest NREN in Southern Europe, CARNET participates in the GÉANT project and many other international activities and projects. Over the years, our personnel gained expertise in almost every ICT-related field, and we have done so by cooperating and learning from the NREN community. Excellent collaboration with neighbouring NRENs is enabling our organisation to give back to the R&E community. The SEE Forum is the right place to do so. We have the opportunity to support the emerging NRENs in the SEE region and in general to cooperate on a variety of projects and ultimately provide, while always learning from each other, cutting edge services to our users.”

Marina De Giorgi from the GÉANT Partner Relations team concluded: “We welcome Hrvoje, Tomi and Aleksandar in the SEE Forum, and we are excited to meet each other in person and look forward to more fruitful exchanges and active collaboration in the future.”

For further information on the SEE Directors Forum, contact Marina De Giorgi from GÉANT Partner Relations marina.degiorgi@geant.org

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